THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed a criminal complaint against a couple for allegedly manufacturing fake cigarettes in a factory-warehouse in Lubao, Pampanga.
In a statement, the BIR said Mark Bryan R. Chan, and his wife, Jeanette A. Chan, were charged with unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment of the tax.
This offense is punishable under Section 263 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 as amended and for possessing false and counterfeit stamps punishable under Section 265 of the Tax Code.
“The case stemmed from a phone call received by the BIR from an anonymous person denouncing Mr. Chan for allegedly manufacturing fake cigarettes in a factory-warehouse located at Purok 6, San Isidro, Lubao, Pampanga,” the BIR said.
“An ocular inspection of the said cigarette factory-warehouse revealed several cigarette-making machines, tobacco production raw materials, several boxes of BIR stamps and several cigarette packs,” it added.
The BIR said the couple evaded the payment of P2.58 billion in excise taxes and other increments for allegedly producing, manufacturing and possessing fake internal revenue stamps and possessing excisable articles with fake internal revenue stamps.
The government confiscated a total of 8.08 million fake stamps. In order to validate the authenticity of internal revenue stamps, the inventory and verification of the authenticity of the cigarette stamps was made with the use of a Taggant reader, a mobile
verification device.
“APO Production Unit Inc. confirmed that the samples sent by the BIR are fake stamps on the ground that the QR Codes were scanned and the data retrieved were all invalid. For emphasis, the stamps are fake because they do not contain several multi-layered security features of a valid internal revenue stamp,” the BIR said.
Based on BIR records, Mr. Chan, as owner and operator of the cigarette factory at Purok 6, San Isidro, Lubao, Pampanga, has neither registered as an excise taxpayer nor secured any permit to engage in business as a manufacturer of locally produced cigarettes and/or importer of cigarettes of any brand.
In 2016, Mr. Chan was granted a Mayor’s Permit by the Municipality of Lubao to operate Titan Feeds Trading. The Application Form filed by Mr. Chan for the said Mayor’s Permit shows that his address is at No. 6, San Isidro, Lubao, Pampanga, the same address as the subject factory-warehouse.
There was, however, no warehouse at Purok 6, San Isidro, Lubao, Pampanga, that was registered with the BIR under the name Mark Bryan R. Chan.
The case against the Chan couple is the 310th filed under the Run After Tax Evaders program of the BIR under the leadership of Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay. It is also a RATE case of Revenue Region No. 4, Pampanga.