The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) estimates that revenues from the tobacco industry may have reached $7.3 billion in 2024.
The BIR gave no comparative figures for the year earlier.
“The Philippines, as one of Asia’s developing economies, is home to an active tobacco industry, whose revenues are projected to reach $7.3 billion in 2024,” BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. said in a speech at the Second International Tobacco Summit in Quezon City on Tuesday,
“The industry itself is expected to grow at an annual rate of 2.67 percent from 2024 to 2029,” he added.
The strong potential for revenues has prompted a growing number of unscrupulous groups and individuals to exploit the ever-increasing demand for tobacco and tobacco-related products, the BIR head said.
“Such exploitation is behind the illicit trade in tobacco products, which has been exposed as a major scourge of the economy itself,” he said.
“We are all aware of the various ways through which illicit trade undermines and eventually destroys not only the economy, but society itself. Illicit trade floods the market with substandard products that can be hazardous to public well-being, and forces unfair competition on legitimate enterprises,” Lumagui added.
He cited the enforcement activities implemented in the past year that led to large-scale seizures of tobacco products.
“I have no doubt that the illicit traders from all sectors of the economy will continue to indulge in their nefarious practices. The Bureau, however, stands ready to meet whatever challenge they may pose to us, for in the final analysis it is the well-being and the future of our people that is at stake in the war against illicit trade,” Lumagui said.
“More than anything, it is important to show these illicit traders that crime does not pay, that wrongdoings will be punished, and that misdeeds have no place in our society,” he added.