BIR may get some Customs functions

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) may assume the port accreditation and post-audit functions of the Bureau of Customs as part of the reorganization being readied for the corruption-tainted BOC.

This was revealed on Friday by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima on the sidelines of the BIR’s 109th anniversary celebration.

Purisima said the proposal, which has yet to be presented to President Aquino, takes into consideration BIR’s modern and reliable information communications technology infrastructure.

The BIR has implemented a computerization program that made possible data-banking and cross-checking of taxpayer information.

The new IT system allows
examiners to check on the voluminous data of large taxpayers and capture the important information faster and more accurately.

“Based on our experience with Customs, it’s difficult to pin down the smugglers because they have provided the bureau with false addresses,” Purisima said.

Since the BIR’s IT system is now well equipped, Purisima said the government’s main tax collection agency might as well take charge of the accreditation and post-audit functions of the BOC to maximize the collection of taxes, minimize leakages and curb smuggling.

“Better coordination between the BOC and BIR is needed to efficiently and effectively conduct quality audits with the end view of collecting the correct amount of taxes due,” Purisima said.

The ongoing revamp within the BOC, which reportedly has the blessing of Aquino, involves the removal or reassignment of the agency’s high-ranking officials, district and support collectors.

Sources said some BOC officials and employees who are Career Executive Service Officers might be transferred to other government agencies.

Under Republic Act 9335 or the Attrition Act, an official or employee of the BOC or the BIR may be removed from the service when he or she falls short of collection goals by at least 7.5 percent.

Termination though will not apply if a revenue district is newly created or has been operating for no more than two years.

Customs’ district and sub-port collectors had signed a manifesto expressing their support for the government’s efforts to reform the BOC.

The BOC has consistently failed to meet its collection targets in the past 14 months under the leadership of Rufino Biazon. Last year, it collected only P289.87 billion, short of its goal of P347.07 billion.

Based on the data submitted by BOC to the Finance department, the Customs bureau has slashed its collection target to P340 billion, or just about 86 percent of the P397.3 billion set in the government’s fiscal program for this year.

The reorganization and realignment of the Customs bureau followed the public tongue lashing received by the agency from President Aquino during his State of the Nation Address on July 22 for its failure to put a stop to smuggling in the country and perennially missing its collection goals.

Tough times ahead

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Biazon and other BOC officials still enjoying the trust of Aquino should move at once and tackle the corruption problem at the agency by the horns. He likened the corruption at the BOC to “wangwang” (siren), which Aquino had ordered eliminated right away.

“Raising the issue in his SONA is already a stern warning and I believe (President Aquino) will effect changes himself in the BOC should nothing happen in the next few weeks,” Cayetano said.

“I do understand the difficulty of having to effect a reform, but now that Commissioner Biazon and (Deputy) Commissioner (Danilo) Lim are in the middle of this issue, and they have the support of the President and the people who want radical reforms in the agency, they should take this as opportunity to address the problem of corruption in the BOC,” he said.

He said corruption in the BOC has become so bad that even legitimate businessmen who want to comply with the law in the payment of duties are being forced to give in to unscrupulous Customs personnel in order to bring out their goods.

He said several businessmen met with him recently and told him about their bad experiences with corrupt BOC personnel.

“I was talking to people working with the BOC and they told me that the people at Customs make more money than the brokers. They informed me that it is SOP (standard operating procedure) to pay bribes for every transaction,” Cayetano said.

“So we have to go to the root of the problem because at Customs it is SOP to give (bribes) for each container. Even legitimate importers who have their own computations wherein the government would make a profit are no longer convinced to do the right thing and just pay per container just to speed things up,” he added.

Citing the 2012 Survey on Enterprises on Corruption conducted by the Social Weather Stations, Cayetano said the BOC “distinguished itself as the sole institution with a bad rating.”

From a rating of negative 69, the BOC was given a negative 45 rating in 2012, an improvement that Cayetano said amounts to nothing.

“Smuggling, bribery, and corruption are the problems of the BOC. In the SONA of the President, he mentioned that P200 billion or $4 billion is lost due to corruption. For fiscal year 2012, the BOC failed to reach its revenue goal of P59 billion despite the surplus of P20 million during the start of the year. It fell short of P13 billion,” Cayetano said.

“As the President said, he estimates that P200 billion is lost every year. Now, what does that mean for us now that the budget is being proposed? It could mean 800,000 new classrooms, 20 million more scholarships, 10 million SMEs could be given P10,000 to P20,000 as loans or 20 million more beneficiaries of the CCT (conditional cash transfer) program,” he added.

“I think this is the time for real reform. In our country, reforms will not start until the perpetrators are caught and punished,” Cayetano said.

CCTV pushed

Meanwhile, a Mindanao congressman is urging the administration to install high-definition closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in corruption-prone agencies like the BOC and the BIR.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said the government should make the installation of CCTV cameras part of its campaign against crime and corruption.

“CCTV cameras would come in handy in monitoring corrupt and even discourteous personnel who are manning offices that process tax payments, permits, licenses and other cash transactions,” he said.

Such gadgets could be the answer to the culture of corruption that still exists in many government agencies despite the administration’s ‘daang matuwid’ (straight path) advocacy, he said.

“I have heard horror stories about people paying fixers just for the simple reason that they do not want to go through the trouble of falling in line to process certain government documents. I think that installing a CCTV system inside government institutions, especially those that handle payments and other financial transactions such as Customs and BIR, will help stop these malpractices,” he added.

Nograles said while some cities require business establishments to install CCTV cameras as a security measure, the national government still has to adopt such a policy for its agencies.

“CCTVs are now a necessity even in government establishments. All banks and other commercial establishments that handle financial transactions now have their own CCTVs, so I really think that we can do the same for all government offices that handle cash or accept payments,” he said.