A civil society group has urged President Duterte to immediately address the rising incidence of smuggling in the country.
Estimates show that the country loses some P200 billion in tax revenues yearly due to smuggling.
“President Duterte announced some very encouraging plans on fighting criminality and corruption, streamlining bureaucracy, improving railways and airports, protecting women, and creating a People’s Broadcasting Corp. But he also plans to cut income and corporate taxes, which will shrink the revenues of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR),” Rodolfo Javellana, president of the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC), said in a statement.
He said the group was drafting recommended policy reforms that would help the government stop illegal imports and shore up revenues for government programs.
One was to classify all acts of large-scale smuggling as economic sabotage.
“The classification of agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage was an important victory for the Filipino people, but other forms of smuggling are just as harmful to the national interest. This includes the smuggling of manufactured goods, construction materials, and fuel,” Javellana said.