A coast guard personnel (right) stand guard to the alleged smuggled Mighty cigarettes in two 20 footer container vans at pier 4 seized by the Bureau of Customs .(JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has created a three-man panel to conduct a preliminary investigation on the P9-billion tax evasion complaint filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) against cigarette maker Mighty Corporation.
In a Department Order (DO) 221 dated April 4 but made public Wednesday, Aguirre designated Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Sebastian F. Caponong Jr. to head the panel.
His members are Assistant State Prosecutors Ma. Lourdes C. Uy and Mary Ann S. Parong.
“In the interest of service and pursuant to existing laws, a panel of State Prosecutors is hereby created to conduct preliminary investigation…for violation of the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC)and if evidence so warrants, file the necessary Information/s in court and prosecute the same,” read the DO.
Based on BIR’s complaint before the DoJ, Mighty Corporation is allegedly liable to pay an estimated aggregate deficiency excise tax liability in the total amount of P 9.564 billion.
Named respondents are retired AFP deputy chief of staff Edilberto Adan who is serving as the company’s president; retired judge Oscar Barrientos, executive vice president; Alexander Wongchuking, vice president for external affairs and assistant corporate secretary; and Ernesto Victa, treasurer.
The company according to the BIR should be prosecuted for unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment of tax and of possessing false, counterfeit, restored or altered stamps in violation of Sections 263 and 265(c) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.
The BIR said the corporation was the subject of an on-the-spot surveillance operations of untaxed cigarette products and that when investigating officers from its regional unit in Central Luzon entered four warehouses leased by the corporation and conducted random test of 10 master cases of cigarette stores in the said warehouses, it showed that the stamps used are fake and subsequently confiscated.
After this operation, the BIR directed its revenue officers belonging to the Excise Large Taxpayers Service to check the authenticity of the internal revenue stamps on the pack of cigarettes and once again found the stamps to be fake.
“The inventory showed that Mighty Corporation stored 66,281 master cases containing 33, 140, 500 packs of cigarettes. The investigation further showed that 87.5 percent of the said stamps bore fake revenue internal stamps,” the complaint said.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Mighty Corporation has agreed to pay P3 billion to settle its excise tax liabilities. JE
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