The government said Monday over P1 billion worth of illegal cigarettes and paraphernalia were seized in separate operations by the Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Separate teams from Customs and BIR, the government’s largest revenue collecting agencies, seized fake cigarettes worth over P1 billion, fake tax stamps worth P175 million in taxes, along with raw materials, machines for cigarette manufacturing and other paraphernalia in separate raids in Pangasinan, Pampanga and Bulacan.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III lauded the two agencies for intensifying their unified campaign against the illicit tobacco trade and said such raids proved that the Duterte administration was serious in its resolve to fight corruption and other illegal activities on all fronts.
“The BOC and BIR deserve to be commended for conducting without letup their campaign to rid our country of the illicit tobacco trade, which deprives the government of hundreds of millions of pesos in revenues yearly and eats up the market of legitimate manufacturers who abide by the law and pay their taxes regularly,” Dominguez said.
“These sustained efforts show that the Duterte administration’s campaign against corruption and other illegal activities would be pursued with the same zeal as its war against narco traffickers and illegal drugs,” he said.
Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon said four warehouses were found to be counterfeiting popular cigarette brands in Villasis, Pangasinan. The raid by a composite team led to the seizure of various materials for cigarette manufacturing and the arrest of 24 undocumented foreign nationals.
Faeldon said the raid on the warehouses inside the Villasis compound yielded over P1 billion worth of fake cigarettes, along with 11 units of cigarette making/packaging machines, 1,453 sacks of cut-filter, 27 containers of menthol solution, 1,149 master cases for assorted brands of cigarettes, 22 trays of filter, 378 rolls of inner liner, 469 rolls of clear wrap, 2,173 reams of counterfeit BIR tax stamps, 88 pales glue, 1,251 packs of cigarette brand soft labels, 4 units of air compressor and 3, 244 bundles of assorted master cases.
Meanwhile, the BIR said it shut down the premises of an unauthorized manufacturer of various cigarette brands in Lubao, Pampanga and confiscated 5.5 million pieces of fake unused cigarette strip stamps worth P175-million in excise taxes and value added tax.
