The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed yesterday another P26.9-billion tax evasion case against Mighty Corporation (MC) and its four key officials for alleged unlawful possession of huge cache of untaxed cigarettes stored at its warehouses in San Ildefonso, Bulacan.
It was the second criminal compliant filed by the BIR against the homegrown cigarette company and its four top officials, namely; retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, president; former Executive Judge Oscar Barrientos, executive vice president; Corporate Secretary Alexander Wongchuking, and Treasurer Erneto Victa.
The latest complaint was based on the outcome of joint BIR and Bureau of Customs raid last March 24 at two MC warehouses in San Ildefonso Bulacan.
Like in previous raid of MC warehouses in San Simon, Pampanga, BIR and BOC operatives also seized large volume of cigarette packs in San Ildefonso with alleged fake tax stamps.
The respondents were accused of violating Sections 263 and 265 for alleged unlawful possession of cigarette packs with fake stamps.
The BIR said that as a result of inventory-taking using Taggant scanners, a large volume of cigarette packs were seized for allegedly having fake revenue stamps.
The raid and subsequent test of the cigarettes were witnessed by the representatives of MC and Barangay Matimbubong barangay officials in San Ildefonso town.
Based on the 24-day validation activity conducted from March 27, 2017 to May 05, 2017, 100 percent of the total stamps tested on 536,000 cigarette packs were fake.
The stamps are fake since they did not contain one of the multi-layered security features of a valid internal revenue stamp.
Likewise, the BIR said the stamps were not affixed at the production plant of MC in Barangay Tikay, Malolos, Bulacan as required by law since no official delivery receipts for the said San Ildefonso warehouses were presented by the respondent company. (JUN RAMIREZ)