President Benigno Aquino's two-month-old government has
been filing one case a week against tax evaders and smugglers as part of its
pledge to cut the budget deficit by cracking down on graft.
"We want to send a strong warning to our employees
that the criminal liability of customs officials accused of conniving with
smugglers was equal to the criminal liability of brokers and consignees,"
said Lito Alvarez, head of the customs bureau.
"Had these employees done their job, and forfeited
the rice shipments in favor of government, we could have earned about 400
million pesos ($8.9 million) from the sale of the confiscated commodity."
From January to May this year, Alvarez said grain
importer Point Given Marketing had brought in nearly 800 containers which it
declared contained tariff-free beans, but were found to be filled with rice
from Vietnam.
White rice is subject to 50 percent duty and 12 percent
sales tax, Alvarez said, estimating the government lost about 200 million pesos
in taxes. Another 400 million pesos were lost from possible sale of the seized
commodity.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the crackdown on
tax evaders and smugglers could be paying off after the customs bureau posted a
23-month high in collections in July despite lower volumes of shipments.
The customs bureau has a collection target of 280 billion
pesos in 2010.