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If there is indeed a windfall of P18.6 billion from
the expanded value-added tax (E-VAT) on oil, why is there a
shortfall in the collections of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and
Customs, Sen. Francis Escudero asked Wednesday.
Escudero, the chairman of the
Senate Committee on Ways and Means, wondered why the reported
windfall from E-VAT was not at all reflected in the revenues
collected by the two bureaus.
In a press conference at the
Senate, Escudero said that his committee would inquire into where
the P18.6 billion had gone.
“They might have used the P18.6
billion to reward themselves under the Lateral Attrition Law,” he
said.
The law provides incentives for
the Customs and Internal Revenue bureaus for collecting above
revenue targets, and sanctions for failing to meet them.
“This windfall is not the
result of collection efforts but of the increase in oil prices so it
is not covered by the Lateral Attrition Law,” he stressed.
At the last committee hearing,
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and Undersecretary Antonio Villar said that
customs officials divided among themselves P402 million as reward
under the Attrition Law after getting P2 billion in advance payment
from oil firms.
Escudero said Customs should also
exclude the tax expenditure fund of P20 billion paid by
government-owned and -controlled corporations from its total revenue
collections.
“This is like getting money
from one pocket and putting it in the other pocket. It should not be
covered by the Lateral Attrition Law,” he said.
There is already a bill in the
House seeking to repeal the law, and Escudero said that a
counterpart measure could be filed in the Senate.
“We don’t know how the
collection target was set, what would be the sources of the fund
collections and who would get the reward,” he said.
A list of Customs officials who
divided the P402-million reward included security guards, drivers,
janitors, clerks, clerical assistants, warehousemen, messengers and
print machine operators, all with the Office of the Commissioner.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales got the highest share with
P5.2 million.
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