Gov’t losing billions for health spending due to smuggling, illegal manufacture of cigarettes—NBI

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PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur –– An official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has asked the public’s enhanced cooperation in the drive against smuggling and the illegal manufacture of cigarettes.

These activities deprive the government of money that would have been collected for health care spending.

Lawyer Moises Tamayo, NBI director for Western Mindanao, said cigarette smuggling is rampant in some provinces of the Zamboanga Peninsula and Bangsamoro regions.

Tamayo said collection from cigarettes goes to fund the universal health care program.

Smuggled and illegally manufactured cigarettes are not levied these taxes, hence a loss for the government, he said.

In Zamboanga del Sur last year, Tamayo said authorities confiscated smuggled cigarettes that could have earned the government some P500 million in excise tax.

Irvin Ho of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) revealed that from May to December 2020, smuggled cigarettes that could have netted the government some P3 billion were seized in Zamboanga Peninsula and the Bangsamoro regions.

“That’s how large the operation of cigarette smuggling is in these areas,” Ho said.

Recently, anti-smuggling agencies in Zamboanga del Sur strengthened their collaboration to sustain the gains of their drive last year.

These include the Zamboanga del Sur provincial government, NBI, Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard, BOC, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Philippine Information Agency, the Philippine Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion, and the Federation of Philippine Industries, Inc.

LZB