Trader charged for P3.4B tax evasion
FAKE CIGARETTES
BUGALLON- The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed on April 25 a tax evasion case against a businessman at the Department of Justice for tax evasion arising from the manufacture of fake cigarettes and use of counterfeit tax stamps worth P3.4-billion unpaid tax dues in Barangay Portic here.
Charged was Danilo Calugay for “the unlawful pursuit of business, failure to file excise tax returns, unlawful possession or removal of articles subject to excise tax without payments of tax and unlawful possession of counterfeit unlawful stamps in violation of Sections 236, 255, 263 and 255 (c) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended (Tax Code).”
Calugay is a businessman that under the tradenames Lucky DC Convenience Store and Lucky DC Gasoline Station with office address at Barangay Mapolopolo, Basista and at Umanday Bugallon respectively.
A mission order last November 2018 BIR after two confidential information reported the illegal operations of a cigarette factory located in Barangay Portic, Bugallon and raw materials warehouse in Mangaldan town.
The BIR Strike Team led by the Regional Investigation Division with the National Bureau of Investigation Manila, barangay officials and representatives from Phillip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation raided the suspected manufacturing plant.
The raid resulted in discovery of thousands of unregistered cigarette packs and the illegal manufacturing and packing of cigarettes that employed a number of local workers.
Several cigarette making and packing machines, 495 master cases, 7 reams of fake cigarettes and 8, 620,000 of fake cigarette stamps were seized during the said raid.
The internal revenue stamps affixed in the seized cigarette packs were found to be counterfeit and spurious as verified by a Taggant Reader (a BIR mobile device to detect the authenticity of the same) and an issued certification by the APO Production Unit, a government agency in charge of the printing of the said internal revenue stamps.
“As a consequence of the criminal act of Calugay in not registering his business, producing, manufacturing and possessing spurious and counterfeit internal revenue tax stamps , it evaded the filing and payment of the correct excise tax amounting to P3.4 billion, inclusive of increments,” a BIR said in a news statement.
This is the 415th case filed under the Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program of the BIR under the leadership of Commissioner Caesar Dulay. It is likewise a RATE case of Revenue Region No. 7, Quezon City. (PhilStar Wire Service)
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