Car smuggling cost government P21 billion in 2009

A WHOPPING P21 billion. That’s how much the government lost due to revenue leakages caused by car smuggling in 2009 alone. And according to data culled by the government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the revenue “leakages” are alarming and could be increasing since then, based on the fact such losses have been steadily rising annually during the four-year period beginning 2005 that was covered by the research. This prompted the PIDS to issue a warning that car smuggling could deal a big blow to the efforts to boost the automotive industry in the country. The data were presented by PIDS Senior Research Fellow Rafaelita Aldaba in her work titled “Can the Philippine Auto Industry Survive Smuggling?” The data showed that the estimated tax leakage—or lost value-added tax (VAT), duties and excise taxes—was around P14.97 billion in 2005.