‘Smuggling costs govt P200B every year’

A party-list lawmaker urged the government to intensify efforts to curb smuggling, saying P200 billion is lost every year because of this illegal activity.

“Instead of introducing new tax reforms to raise revenue for the government’s social services and infrastructure programs, the government should be looking into the issue of smuggling at BoC (Bureau of Customs), especially steel,” Buhay party-list Rep. Jose ‘Lito’ Atienza said.