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The
performance of Customs collectors should not be measured
solely on their increased collection but on the
increments resulting from their vigilance to prevent
revenue leakage out of technical smuggling.
This is
the opinion voiced by domestic manufacturers in asking
for the revision of the current guidelines in rating the
performance of Customs collectors pursuant to RA 9335,
or the Attrition Act.
In a
letter to Malacanang, the Federation of Philippine
Industries (FPI) said an increase in collections without
“meaningful classifications” is not an accurate gauge
because of the various attendant contributory factors
such as surge in importations, increase in the value of
the imported commodities or the depreciation of the
peso.
In these
cases, FPI president Jesus Arranza said the Customs
collector has no control at all.
In the
current system, Arranza said a creative collector, who
is assigned, for example, in the
Port of
Batangas,
can encourage his “friendly” importers to have their
shipments docked at Batangas instead of the Port of
Manila just to increase the entries and collections in
his district.
As a way
to convince the importers whose warehouses are nearer to
the Port of Manila, Arranza said the creative collector
in Batangas can easily dangle special deals or
arrangements ranging from undervaluation, misdeclaration,
misclassification or underdeclaration as an “incentive”
to help them recover cost.
“This
incentive will result in substantial reduction of taxes
that should have been paid to the government, and it
will definitely spawn technical smuggling, which is
inimical not only to the government but also to the
local industries and labor,” he said.
Arranza
said the corresponding increments that came as a result
of the vigilance of Customs officials who made the
proper classification, valuation and declaration should
be made the basis in rating their performance.
“If that
is the basis, you will eliminate technical smuggling,”
Arranza said in the letter signed also by Undersecretary
Antonio Villar, head of the Presidential Antismuggling
Group.
In the
same letter, Arranza asked President Arroyo to order the
Bureau of Customs to correct its policy on the
voluntary-disclosure program, in which the importers are
still allowed to avail themselves of the scheme even
after they have been issued the audit notification
letter (ANL).
He said
the program must be availed of only before the issuance
of the ANL to force importers who want to avoid the
corresponding penalties to come out really voluntarily
and help save the government time and money in going
after them.
He cited
as a classic example the case of Rustan’s Corp., which
was allowed to avail itself of the program after it was
issued the ANL late last year.
Arranza
said Rustan’s was only made to pay P20 million for 271
batches of importations that it disclosed and was also
given the “immunity” from audit for a period of two
years after it was placed in the least-priority list for
auditing. |
