PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to step up their efforts to protect the country’s tobacco industry against the smuggling of tobacco and vape products.
Marcos issued the call during the 6th Private Sector Advisory Council-Agriculture Sector Group (PSAC-ASG) meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, where he sought the intensified enforcement of anti-smuggling measures.
“Enforcement and anti-smuggling and all that. You really have to beef them up and I think we’re doing that,” Marcos said, as quoted in a Presidential Communications Office (PCO) news release on Thursday.
“There will be [more efforts] with the Bureau of Customs and BIR so that we can improve performance with that regard,” he added.
In response, Special Assistant to the President on Economic and Economic Affairs Frederick Go said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Consumer Protection Group has committed to assigning more people to help monitor the vape industry.
BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr., for his part, said his agency has intensified its crackdown against smuggled vape products and is set to implement a tax stamp system to rid the market of illegal vape products. (PNA, GP)
