Lito Atienza: ‘Customs collection better than TRAIN 2 for raising revenue’

MANILA, Philippines — Customs collection is better and more efficient in generating additional taxes.

This in essence was the call made by the 45-member official opposition bloc at the House of Representatives on efforts by the Duterte administration to unduly burden tax-saddled Filipinos with the continued implementation of the second tax reform law.

“There are about 3,000 to 4,000 container vans that pass through our main port here in Manila every day, but only three percent of that are inspected,” House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Lito Atienza revealed to reporters in their weekly press briefing.

“Let’s collect more from (the Bureau of) Customs. They should implement pre-inspection at the port of origin. If we will only implement fully the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, we will have a higher tax collection,” the former Manila mayor emphasized.

As per his estimates based only on a conservative level, Atienza, who represents Buhay party-list, said the national government will be generating revenues ranging from P300 billion to P400 billion every year if only the executive department will enforce the law to the letter.

House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez and Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. agreed.

Teves reiterated his call for the Customs bureau to “invest” and procure P25 billion worth of X-ray machines that will be deployed in all airports and seaports all over the archipelago, if only to ensure that smuggling will not be tolerated at all costs.

“With the P25-billion investment, I really think we can generate as much as P100 billion or even P200 billion in additional revenues every year. And if only they will impose a ‘no X-ray, no entry’ policy, then we will definitely double our collection targets,” Teves said.

“We don’t need any other excise taxes. Let’s suspend excise taxes. There will be no more misdeclarations and we will raise more revenues. All we have to do is just fix our problematic collection in Customs and in the BIR,” he added, referring to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

For his part, Suarez called for the “full implementation” of Republic Act 9335 or the Lateral Attrition Law of 2005.

“This has not been fully implemented. This law aims to provide penalties and rewards for the officials of the BIR and BOC based on their performance,” he said. – With Mayen Jaymalin