President López Obrador said Monday the government will reveal the details of a “monumental” tax fraud scheme this week.

Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador said that so-called empresas factureras, or invoicing companies, created a parallel tax collection system that took in an estimated 300 billion pesos (US $13.4 billion at today’s exchange rate) over a period of more than 10 years.

He said that criminal complaints against those responsible for the fraudulent scheme are being prepared and that details of how 50 billion pesos was stolen will be disclosed later this week.

“A kind of parallel Federal Tax Administration [SAT] was created …” López Obrador said.

The president said that small, medium-sized and large businesses as well as individual taxpayers were lured into the fraudulent scheme.

“The majority got involved in this operation innocently and ended up avoiding the payment of [their] taxes,” López Obrador said.

“It’s fraud of the nation. We’re going to announce how it operated, who those responsible are and how many people were victims,” he said.

López Obrador said that the parallel tax system siphoned off up to 30% of the total tax revenue the government should have received. “We’re talking about a monumental fraud,” he said.

The president said the names of businesses that evaded the payment of their taxes won’t be revealed but they will be notified of their debts to the SAT and given the opportunity to settle them.

The government has ramped up efforts to recoup unpaid tax debts, particularly targeting large companies with outstanding  multibillion-peso bills.

Earlier this month, López Obrador asked the Canadian government to help persuade Canadian mining companies to pay their tax debts in Mexico, stating that “it’s very clear” that some are in arrears.

Source: Milenio (sp)