Brokers to undergo reaccreditation – Henares

MANILA, Philippines - All importers and brokers will undergo a reaccreditation process as part of the government’s campaign to weed out fly-by-night companies that are being merely used as fronts by smugglers.

In an interview on DZMM radio Tuesday, Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said the government would be purging its list of accredited importers and brokers to ensure that only qualified entities are allowed to transact business.

Pending approval of a proposal that would transfer the Bureau of Customs’ accreditation and post entry audit functions to the BIR, Henares said the government’s main tax collection agency is cleansing its computer registry base to distinguish legitimate importers from unscrupulous ones.

 â€œWhile the transfer is still being firmed up, we at BIR are aready preparing the infrastructure by further strengthening our electronic tax information system,” Henares said.

 â€œWe’ll go through the list of accredited importers  and check whether they have been regularly paying income taxes. If they don’t, we won’t give accreditation,” Henares added.

Henares also pointed out that the government would limit accreditation to a specific service.  “If they are registered as importer of vehicles then they will only be allowed to import vehicles. They wont be allowed to import anything and everything under the sun,” she said.

The BOC’s Interim Customs Accreditation and Registration Unit (iCare), which is currently tasked with accrediting importers, brokers and traders, has been the subject of many complaints, mostly involving corrupt practices of Customs officials.

The accreditation unit has been revamped several times as it has become a source of corruption at the BOC.

According to reports, some of the Customs personnel extort money from importers by deliberately delaying the processing of their accreditation application.

Currently, all importers are required annually to secure their accreditation from iCARE by submitting all the necessary documents, such as income- tax returns, certificate of registration from the Securities and Exchange Commission, mayor’s and barangay permits, among others.

Most of the importers and brokers who were previously given accreditation were bogus corporations used by big-time financiers as fronts for their smuggling activities.

Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon said relieving the BOC of its port accreditation function would help unburden the BoC of its task of making sure all importers are legitimate, noting that the BIR has extensive records and more comprehensive procedures in verifying the real existence of companies.

Biazon, however, said the plan that will allow BIR to assume BOC’s post entry audit function needs further study.  Among the issues he said that need to be ironed out include proper valuation and classification of importations.