Bank secrecy lifting not a priority–Henares

Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares: Not a priority. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares made it clear that seeking the lifting of the Bank Secrecy Law by Congress was not a priority of her office, as she acknowledged that such bid was a “long shot.”

Henares said that the priority of the Bureau of Internal Revenue was to push for passage of the measures on the fiscal incentives rationalization, tax incentives, transparency act, customs modernization act and mining revenue sharing.

“The sin tax was 14 years in the making, fiscal incentives was 19 years in the making and the bank secrecy law was 38 years in the making,” she told reporters at the Department of Justice where she filed new tax evasion complaints in keeping with the BIR program against tax evaders.

She said that it was difficult to pass a measure that would lift the bank secrecy law “because apparently there are many who are keeping something secret.”

But she said that over time the lifting of bank secrecy laws would be a “global standard whether we like it or not.”—Christine O. Avendaño