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SENATORS on Monday firmed up their position to block
passage of any new tax bills in Congress after
confirming rampant smuggling activities at various ports
and eco zones “apparently” in collusion with erring
customs officers.
Sen.
Francis Escudero, Senate ways and means chairman,
reported that testimonies obtained by the committee at a
public hearing on unabated smuggling “lend credence to
our position that there is no need for new taxes” as
government could very well raise revenues to bankroll
public programs by waging a no-nonsense crackdown to
plug the gaping tax loopholes.
After
grilling invited witnesses, including top Customs
officials and importers, Escudero said it was clear that
no smuggling activity at any of the country’s ports of
entry could take place without the complicity of the
assigned revenue collectors.
For
instance, he said the committee learned at the hearing
that most smuggling activities involving imported
vehicles, agriculture products, arms, furnitures, among
others, were covered by supposedly official documents,
“So how could these have been sneaked in without the
collusion of the officials concerned?”
Escudero lamented, however, that Customs Commissioner
Napoleon Morales himself “gave no acceptable answer” to
explain the huge discrepancy in the volume of imported
goods that entered the ports and the amount of taxes
collected from them. “If the volumes are misstated, what
more with the content?”
Sen.
Juan Ponce Enrile confronted the Customs chief with
transactions ranging from alleged technical smuggling to
incentives that Morales reportedly awarded to himself
and other “undeserving” Customs personnel.
Morales also came under fire from Federation of Phil.
Industries president Jesus Arranza and Presidential
Antismuggling Group chief Antonio Villar.
Enrile,
who initiated the Senate inquiry on alleged anomalies at
Customs, played a video of completely-built units of
vehicles rolling off a ship in what Morales identified
as the Port of Manila. The senator then proceeded to
question Morales on the large-scale importation of CBUs
by some local car manufacturers, when the government was
supposed to have an existing progressive car
manufacturing program (PCMP) that grants tax incentives
to companies that assemble their vehicles here.
“I
would like to find out if indeed we have PCMP to be
protected because if majority of the cars being marketed
in the country are actually built in other countries,
then we are fooling ourselves… we are subsidizing
foreign labor to the detriment of our own people and
especially consumers of cars,” Enrile demanded.
Briefing reporters after the hearing, Escudero explained
that technical smuggling could be established if it is
proven that the manufacturers were availing themselves
of the incentives undeservedly, and if they were not
paying the correct customs duties for bringing in CBUs.
-- B. Fernandez |
