The estimated excise tax losses of the government due to illicit cigarettes are estimated at P26 billion every year, according to Rep. Jericho Jonas Nograles.
Citing Euromonitor, Nograles in a virtual briefing yesterday said 13 percent of Philippine cigarettes are illegal.
“If P180 billion of excise taxes was collected by the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) in 2021, that means that we are missing P26 billion, at 13 percent,” he said.
Officials of the BIR and Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the same event agreed the estimate well reflects the current situation.
“The figure represents well enough our situation,” Vincent Maronilla, said BOC assistant commissioner.
“Our (own) data… pertain(s) to what has been conducted by the bureau, but of course the data of Sir Nograles here is considered as integrated, coordinating the sources from BIR, BOC… and what have been made by other government enforcement agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police. We can actually say the data presented is more reasonable,” said Beverly Milo, BIR director.
According to Milo’s presentation, the total revenue losses of the government due to illicit trade from 2018 to 2021, based on the BIR’s total apprehended packs of cigarettes and total confiscated fake internal revenue stamps, is P3.74 billion.
Broken down, that is P1.61 billion in 2018, P406.87 million in 2019, P1.6 billion in 2020 and P123.25 million in 2021.
Maronilla said for the BOC, the total is P2.98 billion excise tax revenues lost from 2019 to 2022 based on the agency’s seizures of cigarette master cases: P297.19 million in 2019, P1.51 billion in 2020, P1.08 billion in 2021 and P95.91 million so far this year. – Angela Celis
