MANILA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The Philippines filed corruption cases on Thursday against five Bureau of Customs employees for helping a rice importer evade duties, the first time the new government has filled such charges against state workers.
President Benigno Aquino's two-month-old government has been filing one case a week against tax evaders and smugglers as part of its pledge to cut the budget deficit by cracking down on graft.
"We want to send a strong warning to our employees that the criminal liability of customs officials accused of conniving with smugglers was equal to the criminal liability of brokers and consignees," said Lito Alvarez, head of the customs bureau.
"Had these employees done their job, and forfeited the rice shipments in favour of government, we could have earned about 400 million pesos ($8.9 million) from the sale of the confiscated commodity."
From January to May this year, Alvarez said grain importer Point Given Marketing had brought in nearly 800 containers which it declared contained tariff-free beans, but were found to be filled with rice from Vietnam.
White rice is subject to 50 percent duty and 12 percent sales tax, Alvarez said, estimating the government lost about 200 million pesos in taxes. Another 400 million pesos was lost from possible sale of the seized commodity.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the crackdown on tax evaders and smugglers could be paying off after the customs bureau posted a 23-month high in collections in July despite lower volumes of shipments.
The customs bureau has a collection target of 280 billion pesos in 2010.
(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by John Mair)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
