REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4540 - AN ACT
AMENDING CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED FOUR HUNDRED AND
TWO, AS AMENDED
Section 1. Section one of Republic Act Numbered Four hundred
and two, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:
"Section 1. There is hereby granted to Clavecilla Radio
System, hereinafter referred to as the 'grantee,' a franchise to
establish, construct, maintain and operate in the Philippines, at such
places as the grantee may select, subject to the approval of the
Secretary of Public Works and Communications, stations for
international telecommunications, domestic telecommunications, and
stations for broadcasting, including television, and for the
transmission and reception of messages, impressions, pictures, and
signals by means of electricity, electromagnetic waves or any kind of
energy, force, variations or impulses whether conveyed by wires,
radiated through space or transmitted through other media, and for the
handling of any and all types of telecommunication services, and to
lease and/or acquire facilities, channels and/or circuits."
Sec. 2. Section eight of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 8. The grantee shall keep a separate account of
the gross receipts of the business transacted by it in the Philippines,
and shall furnish to the Auditor General and the Treasurer of the
Philippines a copy of such account not later than the fifteenth day of
April of each year for the preceding year. For the purpose of auditing
accounts so rendered to the Auditor General and National Treasurer, all
of the books and accounts of the grantee, or duplicate thereof, so far
as they relate to the business transacted in the Philippines, shall be
kept in the Philippines, and shall be subject to the official
inspection of the Auditor General of his authorized representatives,
and the audit and approval of such accounts shall be final and
conclusive evidence as to the amount of said gross receipts, except
that the grantee shall have the right to appeal to the courts of the
Philippines, under the terms and conditions provided in the laws of the
Philippines."
Sec. 3. Section nine of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 9. (a) The grantee shall be liable to pay the
same taxes on its real estate, buildings, and personal property,
exclusive of the franchise, as other persons or corporation are now or
hereafter may be required by law to pay, except radio equipment,
machinery and spare parts needed in connection with the business of the
grantee, which shall be exempt from customs duties, tariffs and other
taxes, as well as those declared exempt in this section.
"(b) The grantee shall further pay to the Treasurer
of the Philippines each year after the audit and approval of the
accounts as prescribed in this Act, one and one-half per centum of all
gross receipts from business transacted under this franchise by the
said grantee in the Philippines, in lieu of any and all taxes of any
kind, nature or description levied, established or collected by an
authority whatsoever, municipal, provincial or national, from which the
grantee is hereby expressly exempted, effective from the date of the
approval of Republic Act Numbered Sixteen hundred eighteen.
"(c) In order to foment local industry and the
development of television in the Philippines, radio and television
receiving sets manufactured or assembled in the Philippines, with
Filipino labor and materials to the extent possible, shall be exempted
from all taxes from the date this Act becomes into force and effect."
Sec. 4. Section eighteen of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 18. The grantee shall not lease, transfer,
grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise to any person,
firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity, nor
merge with any other company or corporation organized for the same
purpose, without the approval of the Congress of the Philippines first
had. Any corporation to which this franchise may be sold, transferred,
or assigned, shall be subject to the corporation laws of the
Philippines now existing or hereafter enacted, and any person, firm,
company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity to which this
franchise is sold, transferred, or assigned shall be subject to all the
conditions, terms, restrictions, and limitations of this franchise as
fully and completely and to the same extent as if the franchise had
been originally granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation
or other commercial legal entity."
Sec. 5. Section twenty of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 20. This franchise shall not be interpreted to
mean an exclusive grant of the privileges herein provided for, however,
in the event of any competing individual, partnership, or corporation,
receiving from the Congress of the Philippines a similar permit or
franchise more favorable than those herein granted or tending to place
the herein grantee at any disadvantages, then such term or terms, shall
ipso facto become part of the terms hereof, and shall operate equally
in favor of the grantee as in the case of said competing individual,
partnership or corporation.”
Sec. 6. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: June 19, 1965
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