Wants better revenue monitoring: BIR sets eyes on imported luxury goods

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) wants to better track down revenues coming from imported luxury goods.

Under Revenue Memorandum Order 1-2016, the BIR ordered importers to secure their so-called Authority to Release Imported Goods (ATRIG) for excisable products from the agency’s central office in Agham Road, Quezon City.

Before the order, BIR regional offices were also allowed to issue such authority.

ATRIG is issued by the BIR to importers whose products are either charged with excise tax or are exempted from value-added tax.

The order is only valid for the former, covering products such as cigarettes, alcohol and other liquors, as well as cars.

“It is under the law. We want to ensure that we are able to get the right amount of excise taxes,” Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said in a phone interview.

The order, signed by Henares last Jan. 6, also said that the new rule is “for purposes of ensuring the importation of excisable products (is) fully accounted for.”

“(This is) with the end in view that revenue collections of the government are properly protected,” it said.

Henares said ATRIG is one of the documents importers must present to the Bureau of Customs before their shipments could be released.

The new order follows another BIR issuance last October that tightened requirements for tobacco products, this time for those that will be exported.

Products to be shipped abroad are not subject to excise tax, but Revenue Regulations (RR) 9-2015 wanted to make sure they are really exported and are not illegally being sold in the Philippines, without excise tax payment.

The regulation was issued after the BIR implemented tobacco excise tax stamps, which help the agency track down levies generated from locally-consumed products.

“Any cigarettes found in any area in the Philippines without any internal revenue stamp affixed shall be presumed to have been withdrawn without the payment of excise tax,” RR 9-2015 stated.

Henares said the latest order was issued to streamline processes since “computing for the excise tax is too complicated.”

The BIR is the government’s main revenue agency, traditionally accounting for about 80 percent of state revenues. As of November last year, it has collected P1.327 trillion, up 12 percent year-on-year.