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P60-M cigarettes with fake stamps seized in Ormoc

By Lizbeth Ann Abella

November 9, 2018, 5:50 pm

<p>Boxes of cigarettes with fake tax stamps seized in a warehouse in Ormoc City on Thursday (November 8, 2018).<em> (Photo courtesy of the National Bureau of Investigation) </em></p>

Boxes of cigarettes with fake tax stamps seized in a warehouse in Ormoc City on Thursday (November 8, 2018). (Photo courtesy of the National Bureau of Investigation) 

TACLOBAN CITY -- The joint team of the Eastern Visayas offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have confiscated cigarettes with fake BIR stamps in Ormoc City on Thursday.

Jess Gadaingan, NBI special investigator, in a phone interview Friday, said the NBI and BIR agents raided a warehouse and apartment in Ormoc, which yielded the cigarettes bearing fake BIR stamps.

Gadaingan said authorities were able to identify Bos Marketing in Cogon village as the source of the illegal cigarette products proliferating in Ormoc. As a result, they have conducted an enforcement operation against the illicit trader.

The raiding team seized at least 2,026 boxes or 20.26 million sticks of cigarettes with an estimated value of PHP60 million. The government stands to lose PHP35.5 million in taxes.

Gadaingan said both NBI and BIR are still investigating as to where the fake cigarettes came from. It is still unknown if these were produced domestically or from outside the country.

Edgar Quejada, BIR Region 8 assistant regional director, said in a separate interview that the intensified campaign has led to the seizure of PHP107 million of cigarette products in more than a month.

“The campaign is directed to neutralize the proliferation of cigarettes with fake BIR stamps in Eastern Visayas,” Quejada said.

The raid in Ormoc is a follow-up to the recent operation conducted last October in Tacloban City, where authorities seized around 1,215 boxes or 12.15 million cigarette sticks with counterfeit stamps.

Using the BIR stamp verifier, the team confirmed that the cigarettes had been marked with fake tax stamps. (PNA)

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