THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) report that it exceeded its target for January was apparently timed to deflect the expected observations that the P38-billion full-year shortfall of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for 2010 will be followed by an announcement of a similar shortfall for Customs last year.
Notwithstanding such 2010 gaps, however, nothing should detract from the fact that, for the first time in six months, since the new government took over, the BOC exceeded its goal by P582 million this January, collecting P20.58 billion against its P20-billion target.
In fact, a Customs official said the surplus could even be higher once data from other ports of collections come in.
The initial information showed among the ports that hit their targets were the Port of Manila, the oil ports in Batangas and in Limay, Bataan; Cebu, Davao, Subic Bay and Clark Field.
Meanwhile, Customs noted that in July, when it posted its second-highest monthly cash collection, at least P3 billion of the agency’s total collections of P17.09 billion came from the tax expenditure fund, or TEF—meaning, collections from the importation of government agencies, mainly rice from the National Food Authority. To be fair, Customs has, in the recent past, expressed concern that it cannot always rely on TEF receipts, which tend to distort the real picture. It has, therefore, served notice it would rather focus on hard reforms, and a genuine crackdown on smuggling, the menace that recent accounts of civil society, notably the Fair Trade Alliance, show as causing the government at least P224 billion yearly in revenue.
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, elaborating on the reforms in the agency since last year, said: “The positive impact of the fundamentals for revenue enhancement, which we started to put in place in the middle of last year, was felt as early as November and December, when revenues rose to P19 billion and P20 billion, respectively, up by at least P3 billion over the bureau’s average monthly collection in 2009,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez listed among the reforms the abolition of nonperforming units; the merger of those with duplicating functions; nationwide implementation of the electronic-to-mobile system; strengthening of the BOC’s valuation Reference Information System; and improvement in Customs Bonded Warehouse Management.
He noted, as well, that the agency has revitalized its campaign against smuggling—filing, through its Run After the Smugglers (RATS) team, 25 cases in 2010, with a combined claim of P52 billion even as the bureau’s Intelligence and Enforcement Units seized undervalued or misdeclared goods almost weekly.
But the persistent humongous data on revenue loss from the smuggling evil swamps the millions that the bureau seizes every week, so it should not pat itself on the back just yet.
The multisectoral Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade) believes nothing less than a tough new antismuggling law is needed to keep pace with the new, brazen and creative means by which smuggling is carried out these days. It deserves support in its lobbying for House Bill 1694 (An Act Further Strengthening the Anti-Smuggling Mechanism, Amending for the Purpose Certain Provisions of Presidential Decree 1464, Otherwise Known as the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines, as amended) introduced by Reps. Lorenzo R. Tañada III and Nicanor M. Briones.
FairTrade executive director Mars Mendoza lays out the huge stake in this initiative: “The enactment into law of the antismuggling bill will stamp out smuggling and will save domestic industries being injured by cheap and untaxed imports and, therefore, help save local jobs.”
So it’s not just the government or Customs, in particular, that suffers from smuggling: it’s an evil that gouges the pocket of ordinary Filipinos, depriving them of vital public services that the government is unable to provide for them owing to its cash-strapped status.
This is why FairTrade wants the law changed to allow for these other stakeholders to participate in the fight against smuggling. In a position paper submitted to the House of Representatives ways and means committee, FairTrade recommended that an industry association be allowed to file charges as an injured party against smugglers/violators of tariffs and Customs laws and that lawyers or deputized officers of concerned agencies, corporations and associations be allowed to participate in the proceedings in collaboration with or under the supervision of the BOC.
FairTrade also supports the recommendation of the Tariff Commission that a provision on various fraudulent practices against customs revenues should include the act of making or declaring a false classification as to the commodity’s correct tariff heading as detailed in the import entry.
And, of course, a regular lifestyle check of BIR and Customs people is imperative, says FairTrade; along with the revival of the Multisectoral Coalition Against Smuggling—with government, industry and agriculture associations and civil society represented—to oversee the government’s antismuggling drive and the institutionalization of Industry Commodity Experts coming from the private sector.
For far too long has one administration after another made bold pronouncements about slaying the smuggling monster. Yet these leeches on national life remain as robust as ever. One hopes this administration and its tuwid na daan (straight, righteous path) can decisively wipe them out.
