A NEW Philippine Department of Finance unit, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), will assume the Bureau of Customs (BOC)’s post-entry audit functions.
President Benigno Aquino has signed an executive order transferring the post-entry audit functions of the BOC to the FIU, which is under the direct supervision and control of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, according to a report.
The finance department earlier considered transferring BOC’s key audit function to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The FIU is tasked to identify potential revenue sources and leakages by analyzing data from the BIR, BOC, Bureau of Local Government Finance and other revenue-generating agencies attached to the DOF and comparing these with third-party information.
The new unit will also monitor the revenue performance of the implementing offices of the revenue generating agencies in coordination with their respective statistics divisions and recommend to the DOF chief improvements to help achieve their targets.
Post-entry audit has resulted in higher revenues for the BOC. In 2011, the BOC’s Post Entry Audit Group (PEAG) collected more than P400 million.
PEAG, which determine the accuracy of import taxes and duties that importers must pay, saw its collections increase further in 2012 to around P700 million.
The creation of the FIU is aimed at boosting revenues and stamping out corruption, tax evasion and smuggling, according to the report, which added that post-entry audit is an accepted international best practice to increase trade facilitation, encourage voluntary disclosures, cut incidence of fraud and protect government revenues.
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