The Philippines’ Jose Camacho has taken a more direct approach: Two days a week he’s at the Port of Manila ripping open cargo containers to crack down on smugglers whose black-market trading robs the government of tax revenues.
The finance secretary has confiscated cell phones, ceramic tiles and vegetables. With each discovery, he turns up the heat on the country’s revenue agencies: the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs. He contends that his presence at dockside helps “give the bureaus the feeling of being in a fishbowl, of being watched -- we want to keep everybody on their toes.”
Camacho has replaced the head of the port, given the Bureau of Internal Revenue added prosecutorial muscle and is pushing legislation to further empower his tax collectors.
His campaign seems to be working. Tax revenues have begun to rise in the past few months, and the Philippines’ overall deficit, if not shrinking, is no longer growing. The rating agencies have been threatening to slash the country’s credit rating unless Manila takes dramatic action.
What does the 47-year-old Harvard MBA think of a job that combines Finance minister with customs agent? “It’s fulfilling,” says Camacho, “but not necessarily pleasurable.” The smell of fish can’t help.
