AN OPPOSITION congressman said Wednesday that Malacañang had itself to blame for the dismal revenue collection during the first quarter of the year, which saw the government missing its target revenue collection by at least 7 percent.

Liberal Party Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III of Quezon said the Department of Finance’s judgment call not to give priority to the long-pending anti-smuggling bill may have worsened the government’s collection woes.

 Tañada said the measure could have plugged one of the biggest loopholes in the tax system had it been given priority by the Palace and enacted by Congress.

He said the measure could have provided the saving grace for the government’s dismal fiscal performance from January to March this year.

“Estimated government losses from smuggling amount to P150 billion a year.  Had this bill, which has been sitting with the Senate’s Committee on Ways and Means since June 2005, been acted upon, then perhaps our fiscal situation might not be as bad as it looks today,” Tañada said in a statement.

The proposal is contained in House Bill 4069, which largely originated form Tañada’s House Bill 3715.

The antismuggling bill seeks to tighten the importation rules to make technical smuggling harder, thereby making the importers pay the proper import duties.   It likewise seeks to protect industries that are rapidly losing the local market from the entry of cheap smuggled goods like the shoe, tile and other industries. 

The proposal establishes preventive measures to curb smuggling by providing clearer and more transparent rules for importation, reduces the discretion of Customs officials and strengthens the role of the private sector.  Further penalties for those caught smuggling are increased.

Tañada said the measure was placed on the back burner by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which instead prioritized the Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives Bill. The latter, however, remains pending with the panel because of conflicting lobbies from both foreign and local big businesses as well as locators in processing zones.

He noted that even the finance department appeared not to know exactly what it wanted from the bill.  In the end, the locators showed more lobby strength with the perks in free ports and export processing zones they reclaimed with recent related bills passed into law. 

Tañada said the proposed anti-smuggling law could have provided the government the tool to curb technical smuggling and achieve its revenue goals. He said the measure could have also provided a viable alternative to the expanded value added tax (EVAT), which hits hard on all sectors, particularly the poor.

THE Canadian mining firm TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. will soon start exploration in Jose Dalman, Zamboanga del Norte, after the tribal council of elders of the Subanen in Tamarok finally agreed to allow mineral exploration in their ancestral land.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is drawing up a blueprint for a number of its subsectors to ensure they will contribute to the 4 to 5 percent growth rate being targeted by the department for this year.

DAVAO CITY—The government wants the country’s mango exports to increase by 15 percent over the next three years, propped up by a national expansion program and a subsequent rise in per capita consumption of the fruit among Filipinos.

AN OPPOSITION congressman said Wednesday that Malacañang had itself to blame for the dismal revenue collection during the first quarter of the year, which saw the government missing its target revenue collection by at least 7 percent.

Mr. Macaraig was a taxi driver living on P500 a day. Aside from worsening traffic, high maintenance costs and occasional rarity of customers, the soaring price of gasoline has kept him from getting the most out of his trips and taking home a larger pay.