THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and state-run firm APO Production Unit are set to sign a memorandum of agreement on the rollout of the new excise tax stamps for alcoholic beverages by the first quarter this year.
“I think they are still reviewing it, the BIR. But they target the signing in the first quarter, so I hope they are able to do it,” Finance Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko told reporters on Friday.
The memorandum would make APO responsible for the printing of alcohol excise tax stamps. It currently handles the printing of cigarette tax stamps.
The implementation of the Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (IRSIS) for alcohol products was initially targeted for January, but Ms. Tionko said that deploying the system is more complex compared to tobacco items.
“It’s not like the cigarettes where packs are all the same. We have various sizes of bottles,” she said.
Ms. Tionko added that beverages also have varying levels of alcohol content.
The BIR launched new excise tax stamps for cigarettes this year.
The Department of Finance expects to collect P56.23 billion from alcohol excise taxes for 2018, up 9.91% from a year earlier.
For tobacco taxes, it targets P126.97 billion this year, up 13.78%. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
