PALO, Leyte – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR-8), based here, in coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), raided a cigarette warehouse located in Tacloban City on Thursday (Oct.4).
Atty. Ma. Grace Javier, BIR-8 regional director, said that the cigarettes found in a warehouse located in Barangay 79, Nula-Tula, bore with fake BIR stamps.
Director Javier said that the raid started at about 6 pm and ended six hours later.
The BIR director, who led the raiding team, said that the raid yielded 1,215 master cases of various brands of cigarettes with fake stamps.
She added that each master case of cigarette contains 50 reams and each ream has ten packs.
Javier was not able to determine the value of the raided products in the warehouse but said that the excise tax is P35 per pack of cigarette and the overall tax due to the government is P17.5 million.
“If these are legitimate the excise tax due to the government is P17.5 million,” Javier said.
Javier explained that all the 1,215 master cases of cigarettes were all confiscated because those products bore fake BIR stamps.
Javier also said that the team also simultaneously raided seven stores in Tacloban who were selling cigarettes with fake stamps.
She added that her office is monitoring establishments or stores who are selling cigarettes bearing fake BIR stamps in the region.
She claims that cigarettes bearing fake BIR stamps are now proliferating in Tacloban City and other areas in Eastern Visayas.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
