Tax evaders,
smugglers watch out

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

With the implementation of the Run After Tax Evaders, or RATE program of the Bureau of Internal Revenue two years ago, the Department of Finance filed a total of 70 tax evasion cases in 2006.

Under Run After the Smugglers, or RATS, a total of 28 anti-smuggling cases were filed by the Bureau of Customs nationwide. The programs used to focus on high-profile tax evaders and smugglers, but the RATE and RATS programs now mostly charge lower-profile offenders.

In 2005, the government set up RATE along with the RATS and the Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) of the Department of Finance to prime up the government's anti-corruption drive and to discourage the public from evading the payment of proper taxes and duties.

In Negros Oriental, the BIR has recommended the filing of only one tax evasion case under the RATE program in Dumaguete where, the bureau head said, "our evidence is strong". The local BoC reported no smuggling cases filed in the province. And the BIR declined to identify the alleged tax evaders whether they are high or low profile offenders.

While many cases have been filed in the country under the RATE and RATS, the success of the programs are not complete because the "long arm of the law" has yet to win a conviction. Of the cases filed last year, some are still pending in courts while a few were dismissed.

We congratulate the officers and employees of both local collection agencies in Oriental Negros for doing their jobs honestly in collecting the correct taxes due for the common weal. We hope they will be guided by what the Supreme Court has stated in a long line of cases it has decided that, "Taxes are the lifeblood of the government and their prompt and certain availability is an imperious need."*