The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is taking over from the Department of Justice (DoJ) the filing and prosecution in court of tax cases to speed up the resolution and collection of delinquent accounts.

BIR Commissioner Joel L. Tan-Torres said Tuesday that he will ask the Supreme Court to let the BIR handle both criminal and civil cases as part of the agency's bigger program of raising at least P830-billion this year.

He said if the SC grants the request they will also conduct preliminary probe of suspected tax cheats and filing the same in court.

He noted that collection of back taxes is delayed in many instances by insistence of DoJ prosecutors to conduct their own separate investigation despite presentation by the BIR of assessment reports.

BIR insiders also accused some DoJ prosecutors of siding with taxpayers.

The same sources also accused some BIR lawyers of the same offense, prompting Tan-Torres to instruct them to be more vigilant and aggressive in the prosecution of tax cheats. (Jun Ramirez)