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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider BIR raids illegal cigarette printing facility

BIR raids illegal cigarette printing facility

Published Feb 6, 2022 08:05 pm

A massive warehouse in Nueva Ecija with the size of five basketball courts was raided recently by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for illegally operating as a printing facility for counterfeit cigarette labels and packaging materials.

In a statement, the BIR Tobacco Strike Team said the illegal printing press was churning out cigarette labels and printed packaging materials which could supply the illicit cigarette trade as shown by the almost weekly seizures of counterfeit cigarettes in and outside Luzon and the National Capital Region.

The illegal printing facility was housed in two adjoining warehouses in a barangay in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. Regional police and local authorities also joined in the raid conducted last Jan. 28.

BIR Tobacco Strike Team Director Remedios Advincula said tobacco raw materials, scores of press machines and other printing paraphernalia including rolls of printing papers, pails of powder ink, drums of alcohol solvent and drums printing gas were seized from the warehouse, which was immediately padlocked.

Advincula said they were still assessing the estimated value of the several seized machines and printing materials from the Cabanatuan warehouse, which could run up to billions considering the scale of the operation.

The illegal facility was also printing fake tax stamps for other foreign markets as shown by the half-burned tax stamps intended for Thailand, which the printing employees tried to burn before the raiding team could formally enter the warehouse.

The Cabanatuan raid of the illegal printing facility came on the heels of another raid by Bureau of Customs and police units last Jan. 18 in a Valenzuela City warehouse containing illicit cigarettes and also last Jan. 4 in Subic freeport, where three container vans with counterfeit cigarettes were seized.

The country loses about P10.7 billion in tax revenues yearly due to illegal tobacco trade, according to the latest report released by the EU-Asean Business Council and Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade.

Related Tags

BIR Bureau of Internal Revenue sin tax Cigarettes
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