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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
THE Philippines’ two main
revenue-generating agencies have unveiled new initiatives aimed at
boosting collections this year, after their failure to meet targets
that caused the government to breach its first-quarter budget
deficit.
Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag of
the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) ordered the agency’s regional
directors, revenue district officers and heads of investigating
offices to cancel the accreditation and file criminal complaints
against tax practitioners and financial officers found violating the
Tax Code.
“The days of unscrupulous
financial officers and tax practitioners are numbered. Instead of
leading taxpayers to pay their obligations property, they would
rather manipulate them to pay improperly,” he said.
In a recent memorandum, Buñag
enumerated punishable acts and penal liabilities imposed by the law.
He also wants establishments
violating the law padlocked, citing the agency’s drive last week
against several health clubs in Quezon City.
“I want more of these
establishments padlocked as they continue to defy tax laws. The
government could loose more if they continue operating,” he said.
Buñag’s bravado comes a few
days after the Department of Finance announced that the government
overshot its first-quarter budget deficit ceiling largely due to the
failure of the BIR and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to meet revenue
collection goals.
For its part, the BOC hopes to
meet its collection target this and generate around P7 billion in
the next three to six months by deploying more container x-ray
machines, intensifying its oil shipment marking and requiring the
early submission of shipment manifesto to know the original cargo
volume.
“Part of the program is the
launch of 10 x-ray machines, which are now ready for commissioning
starting next month. The overall strategy is to simultaneously
activate all 10 x-ray machines in eight ports so that ships could
not unload cargoes where we don’t have such machines,” a Customs
official said.
The BOC is also in discussions
with petroleum companies on the matter of shipment marking aimed at
stopping technical smuggling.
“This is similar to stamping
measures on cigarette products but it is a marking system for
petroleum products on per liter basis for easy shipment tracking.
It’s a high-tech, high-value arrangement to be funded by petroleum
companies to stop technical smuggling of petroleum products,” the
source said, adding the BOC aims to implement it in the next two to
three months.
Lastly, the bureau is talking to
the association of international shipping lines, asking the
group’s members to submit manifestos 12 hours before docking so
the agency can process transactions beforehand.
Earlier, Merrill Lynch raised an
alarm over mounting fundamental risks brought on by the
government’s poor revenue collection performance in the first
quarter.
“The credibility of the
government’s fiscal performance is at risk, in our view. We are
disappointed to see that the tax revenue performance was quite poor
in the first quarter. Going forward, the poor revenue performance
may jeopardize the attainment of the annual fiscal deficit
target,” the financial services company said.
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