Khalil Aims at Replacing Customs with Tax on Consumption

by Naharnet Newsdesk 13 February 2015, 08:25

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil revealed on Friday that he is mulling a long-term “revolutionary idea” to terminate customs and replace it with tax on consumption, except on national industries.

“I know those who are corrupt in name... Their turn will come,” Khalil said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Khalil has pledged recently to crackdown on corruption at customs agencies at various land and air border-crossings, noting that corruption has cost the state around 1.2 billion dollars.

Other estimates have placed this number at at least 700 million dollars annually.

The finance ministry, according to the daily, is establishing a system that directly connects the Directorate General of Customs, the Directorate of Imports and that of the Value Added Tax (VAT) to reveal violations and specify phantom firms.

Khalil told As Safir that he is preparing meanwhile for short and medium-term measures to organize and reveal corruption at the customs.

“The imported goods will be thoroughly examined,” he stressed.

Corrupt officials are reportedly working at scamming customs at Beirut Port, are manipulating manipulate fees, forging documents, and exercising other illegal activity.

Others work on smuggling goods from land border-crossings with Syria, in cooperation with Syrian regime forces and even their rivals.

At the Rafik Hariri International Airport, the corrupt groups are work on facilitating the entry of goods that have not been granted authorization by forging customs documents.

These goods are therefore not subject to inspection to determine whether they meet quality standards.

Given this reality, the minister had carried out a reshuffle at customs agencies, targeting 36 auditors, 34 officers, and 845 workers. And he is reportedly determined to carry out routine reshuffles once every three months after 17 officials were referred to the judiciary for committing violations.

H.K.

G.K.

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