Passage of bill seeking more severe action vs tobacco smuggling cheered

The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) and FIGHT IT (Illicit Trade) welcomed the passage at the House of Representatives of a bill that makes a nonbailable offense the smuggling of tobacco products along with staple food items like rice, pork, poultry and fish.

FPI is an umbrella organization of 13 local industry groups while FIGHT IT has been advocating for the protection of the consumers and the traders against illegal trade, specifically smuggling and the sale of smuggled products.

“The approval of House Bill (HB) No. 3917 [on third and final reading] is a welcome development in this time that the country is in much need of revenues due to a somewhat cash trapped economy,” Jesus Arranza, FPI chair and Fight IT head, said in a statement.

Economic sabotage

The bill’s main authors are Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos and PBA party list Rep. Margarita Ignacia Nograles.

HB 3917 is aimed at amending Sections 3 and 4 of Republic Act No. 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 1996, to consider raw or finished tobacco products as agricultural commodities, making the illegal traffic of these an act of economic sabotage.

The 1996 law only classified as “agricultural commodities” rice, sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish and cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage.

For smugglers, the bill also prescribes 30 to 40 years jail time and a fine twice the fair value of the contraband and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other unpaid charges of smuggled items.

The present law provides that persons or firms caught in possession of cigarette products that did not settle taxes face an imprisonment of only 10 to 12 years.

The existing law also provides that a person caught with smuggled cigarettes will be fined 10 times the value of the payable taxes or not less than P1 million and a minimum of five-year imprisonment. INQ