Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III asked the Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Internal Revenue to file appropriate charges against persons and companies caught with “hot goods” to curb smuggling and tax evasion.
Dominguez cited the seizure of P2.2 billion worth of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco products, shoes and clothes that government agents seized in a series of raids since last week.
“If the evidence warrants, I urge the BIR and BoC to file the appropriate charges in court as soon as possible,” Dominguez said.
He also warned government officials in cahoots with erring entities included in the charge sheets.
“They [BoC and BIR] should speed up their investigations and also look into the possible involvement of bureaucrats acting as protectors of these large-scale tax evasion attempts,” Dominguez said.
Customs operatives seized some P200 million-worth of assorted clothing apparel with brand names “Adidas,” “Nike,” “Armour All,” “Vans,” “Lacoste,” “Jag,” “Wrangler,” “Under Armour,” “Superman,” and “NBA” in operations conducted in two buildings in Pasay City.
The Customs also uncovered an attempt to smuggle out of the country three live monitor lizards, which were discovered hidden in the casing of a computer’s CPU.