THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday seized hundreds of mastercases of illicit cigarettes in Nueva Ecija, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.

The joint operation in a Collette’s PX Store in Cabanatuan City saw 480 mastercases of cigarettes bearing no Internal Revenue stamps, indicating that no excise taxes have been paid.

“The store and the warehouse were raided following information that the said establishment has been selling cigarettes not affixed with BIR tax stamps,” the DoF said in a statement.

These included brands such as Two Moon, RGD, Black Bat, Twin Star, among others.

Currently the BIR and is still estimating the total value of the seized products, as well as persons who sub-leased the warehouse.

The Finance department said that the establishment was ordered closed following the raid, as provided under Section 172 of the National Internal Revenue Code.

According to the Tax Code provision, the BIR may “detain products when it has good reason to believe that the proper excise taxes were not paid.”

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez told reporters late Thursday that the government will file criminal cases against the persons involved.

This is the second bust of the BIR against tax evading cigarette firms, following the Mighty Corp. case – which led to a P25 billion compromise settlement deal with the government that eventually led to the scrapping of their criminal charges.

The BIR on Jan. 2018 will require all cigarette firms to adopt the updated Internal Revenue stamps that bear tightened security features, as stated in Revenue Regulations No. 6-2017.

It has also ordered the re-assignment of revenue officers who monitor the business operations of an establishments engaged in the manufacturing, importation, and export of excisable products through Revenue Memorandum Order No. 26-2017. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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