ABOUT P40-P45 billion in government revenues are lost because of “technical smuggling” or the misdeclaration of animal feeds that are in turn processed into cooking oil or palm oil by some companies.
Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Fermin Adriano said during the Laging Handa public briefing that based on the process, 15 percent tax is levied on cooking oil or palm oil.
This is the reason why animal feeds are imported and then processed by other companies as palm oil or cooking oil once it enters the country.
Because of this, Adriano appealed to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to fast-track the investigation on incidents of technical smuggling and to file cases against the perpetrators so that the government may recover the lost revenues.
However, Adriano admitted that this case is complicated since the investigation should start by tracing the port of entry and to determine if the animal feeds were indeed processed into cooking oil or palm oil