From: Journal.com.ph
SMUGGLING of tobacco and liquor products may worsen once the proposed sin tax bill is enacted into law, one of the authors confirmed.
House Bill 5727 author Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya said that smuggling will be an inevitable aftermath of the implementation of his proposed unitary tax system for tobacco and liquor products.
Abaya said that the smuggling activities should be best addressed by the Bureau of Customs and must not serve as a deterrent in their bid to reform the tax system.
“Clearly, it is not zero smuggling and if you get this tax reform in, there will still be smuggling. It will happen but I think it is better addressed by the BoC,” Abaya told reporters.
During a congressional hearing, Blake Clinton Dy, vice president of the Associated Anglo-American Tobacco Corporation, confronted Department of Finance executives with a proof that Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam smugglers have been flooding the local market with cheap cigarette brands.
Dy slammed Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima for claiming that smuggling of liquor and cigarettes are far from becoming reality even if the cost of local cigarettes increase as a result of the passage of HB 5727.
He stressed that millions of pesos worth of cigarettes from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are being shipped into the country through ports of Sulu, Zamboanga and Tawi-tawi.
“Everyone knows this is happening except Secretary Purisima and his subordinates,” Dy said.
