Carlos G. Dominguez, the Philippine finance secretary, said the exodus of POGOs is mainly due to China\u2019s crackdown and not because of the new POGO tax law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- Carlos G. Dominguez, the Philippines’ finance secretary<\/strong>, doesn’t attribute the exodus of Philippine offshore gaming operators<\/strong> (POGOs) to a new tax law but instead believes it is due to China\u2019s crackdown on cross-border gaming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philippines’ president signed a new tax bill into law<\/a> last month, obliging Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs)<\/a>\u00a0to pay\u00a0a 5 per cent tax on their gross gaming revenue<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n there are currently just 40\u00a0POGO licence holders that are currently operating<\/strong>, compared with 61 before the Covid-19 pandemic, but Dominguez says this is more due to China’s stance. Others left due to budget shortfalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: “Once the Chinese started cracking down on that, of course, the business will go down here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the new tax law,\u00a0around 60 per cent of total revenue from POGOs will be assigned for the execution of universal health care programmes\u00a0<\/strong>while 20 per cent of the revenue will be allocated to other health programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government believes\u00a0it could collect PHP13.4bn (US$266.6m) in its first year of implementation<\/strong>\u00a0and PHP32bn in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two POGOs<\/strong>, MG Universal Link Limited (MG Universal) and Inner Strong Limited (Inner Strong) have had their\u00a0registrations revoked by the AMLC<\/a>. According to the regulator, the two POGOs\u00a0failed to cooperate with its compliance checking<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through a statement, the AMLC said: \u201cFailure or refusal to cooperate would mean non-compliance and will be subject to such penalties and sanctions<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAMLC revoked two POGOs registrations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n