BIR, Customs heads vow to run after tax evaders, smugglers

MANILA, Philippines - True to the campaign promises of President Aquino that he would plug revenue leakages by running after tax evaders and smugglers, the newly appointed heads of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs vowed yesterday to identify tax cheats and smugglers regularly and file cases against them.

Newly appointed BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said she plans to file a tax evasion case against tax cheats twice a month. “What we plan is to revive the RATE program. Our target is to file a case every two weeks or twice a month,” she said.

A brainchild of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima during his first stint as Finance chief in 2005, the RATE or Run After Tax Evaders program is a campaign against delinquent taxpayers including celebrities and big businessmen.

The move is part of the agency’s efforts to meet its revenue goal of P830 billion this year.

The new chief of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), meanwhile, vowed to file cases against big time smugglers.

He said yesterday he would name two big-time smugglers every two weeks and file cases against them as part of his effort to meet the agency’s revenue target of P280 billion.

Alvarez said going after big-time smugglers is one of the marching orders he received from Purisima.

 “We will go after the smugglers and we will file a RATS case next week,” he said.

Also a program launched during Purisima’s first stint at the Finance department in 2005, the Run After The Smugglers (RATS) is a vigorous campaign against smugglers.

Under these two programs, the BIR and the BOC would file the cases before the Department of Justice against individual and corporate tax cheats.

Prior to his Customs post, Alvarez headed logistics company Air 21, the local franchisee of global firm Federal Express (Fedex) and BT Titans Inc., owner of Perf Restaurants Inc. and master franchisee of Burger King in the Philippines. He was also president of Sumisho Global Logistics Philippines, a joint venture logistics firm owned by Airfreight 2100 and Sumitomo Corp.