The Department of Health (DOH) is backing the government’s campaign to run after tax cheats in the cigarette industry, adding that an additional P1 billion in unpaid taxes could have been spent to procure medicines and pay for the medical treatment of some 5.7 million indigent Filipinos afflicted with hypertension and diabetes, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III has assured Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial that Mighty Corp. would get no special treatment from the DOF or the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC).
“The rule of law must be applied equally. All kinds of crime must face swift and sure justice, and Mighty Corp. is no exception. These fraudulent tax stamps represent billions of pesos worth of theft from the Filipino people,” Dominguez said.
Last month the BIR filed a tax-evasion case of P9.5 billion before the Department of Justice against the local tobacco firm for unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment of the tax, and for possession of false, counterfeit, restored or altered tax stamps.
The use of fake tax stamps was uncovered during a series of inspections that the BOC had conducted on warehouses housing Mighty Corp. cigarettes in different areas of the country.
“The current ‘sin’ tax law was passed to help devote more resources to health care. It is alleged that Mighty has evaded P9 billion worth of taxes, if not more. Imagine how many hospitals, how many surgeries, how many vaccines, how many prescriptions could have been administered with that money and how many lives could have been saved,” he added.
According to Dominguez, Mighty Corp. executives will have their “constitutional opportunity to prove their innocence”.
In a statement it issued through its legal counsel, Sigfrid Fortun, Mighty Corp., said, “the company welcomes the filing by the BIR of the complaint as it provides us an opportunity to clear our names and show we violated no tax laws. We will continue to cooperate with the government in its continuing effort at tax collection.”
Initial estimates made by the DOH show that the P1-billion revenue loss could have been used to pay for daily maintenance medicines, laboratory work and medical care for deadly diseases caused by tobacco use. The DOH said the amount would be able to treat 3.975 million patients with hypertension and 1.705 million with diabetes.