TACLOBAN CITY – A joint operation of the regional offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) resulted in the confiscation of cigarettes with fake tax stamps in Ormoc City.
Jess Gadaingan, NBI special investigator III told Leyte Samar Daily Express in an interview that the joint operation conducted by NBI and BIR raided a warehouse and an apartment in Ormoc City on yesterday and yielded the cigarettes bearing fake BIR cigarettes stamps.
Gadaingan said that the BIR and NBI has identified the source of the illegal cigarette products (fake cigarettes with fake tax stamps) proliferating in Ormoc which promoted them to conduct the operation against the illicit trader.
Gadaingan, however, did not give the volume of the products confiscated.
On the other hand, a reliable source from the BIR said that the operation seized 2,026 master cases (boxes) or 20,260,000 sticks at both target sites.
The estimated value of the confiscated cigarettes was valued P60 million and the estimated loss by the government in excise taxes was placed at P35.5 Million.
Gadaingan said that both NBI and BIR are still investigating as to where the fake cigarettes came from.
It is not yet known if these were produced domestically or from outside the country.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
