Clean your own backyard first, BIR told

Two senators are opposing a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) plan to conduct a lifestyle check on private individuals suspected of tax evasion.

Sen. Francis Escudero said the BIR should first check the lifestyle of its employees.

“The BIR should first clean its own backyard,” he said.

On the other hand, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the BIR’s action would discriminate against private individuals.

“Government workers, especially high officials, must be at the frontline of any move to correct the inadequacies in revenue collection,” he said.

“Government can better show seriousness and sincerity when its (cleanup) starts with government itself. For so many years, we’ve been suffering from a bad government and unless we start by correcting the government, we can’t instill obedience in the entire population.”

Escudero said government officials, like those from the Bureau of Customs (BoC), must first be able to show that they are following the law.

“A number of Customs and BIR officials are living like kings but their wealth is unexplained,” he said.

Escudero said his committee would start looking into the government’s revenue shortfall and seek a briefing from different agencies, not just the BIR and BoC, on all the sources of revenues.

“These include the offices that collect fees that go to the national coffers and the loans that the government acquires, whether these are advantageous to the country and the people,” he said.

Escudero said his committee would first review BIR Regulation No. 9-0007 raising the tax for common carriers by 2,600 percent.   – Aurea Calica