THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will be filing tax evasion cases against individuals or companies found to be manufacturing counterfeit cigarettes containing fake internal revenue tax stamps, as part of the campaign against the proliferation of illegal cigarettes in the market.
BIR Revenue Officer Remedios C. Advincula Jr., who heads the BIR strike team, told reporters that a tax evasion case will be filed on April 25 at the Department of Justice (DOJ), arising from the raid on a warehouse in Bugallon, Pangasinan, that was illegally operating a cigarette factory.
“[The filing will be on the] 25th. That’s big, actually the basis [for the case is the] fake internal revenue stamps,” Advincula said.
A joint team from the BIR and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided an establishment in Barangay Portic in Bugallon town and found it to be illegally operating a cigarette factory in November 2018.
At least P2 billion worth of cigarettes packed and imprinted with unregistered tax stamps and fake brand labels were seized in the raid. Authorities subsequently discovered that the factory secured a barangay permit to operate as a piggery.
Advincula said more tax evasion cases will be filed by the BIR in the coming days.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel S.D. Guballa said the strike team is verifying the identities of individuals or companies involved in the manufacturing of counterfeit cigarettes and fake tax stamps, and raids continue to be conducted by its strike team.
“All these raids being conducted, first we confiscate all these illegal materials and illegal machines, then after that we file the corresponding criminal cases because we are building up the evidence, we cannot immediately file the criminal case. When we have built a case, that’s the time we file it,” Guballa explained.
Last month Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III directed the BIR to coordinate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in filing charges against local government executives who failed to check the presence of illicit tobacco trade activities in their communities.
In December 2018, the finance chief asked the DILG to investigate and file charges against the local officials and employees responsible for issuing a barangay permit to the illicit cigarettes factory that was disguised as a piggery in Bugallon, Pangasinan.