THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Region 12 filed a tax evasion case against a manufacturer of fake cigarette in Barangay Bata, Bacolod City, on Monday, February 12.
BIR Revenue Region 12 Director Eduardo Pagulayan Jr. said they lodged before the City Prosecutor’s Office the complaint for non-payment of excise taxes and possession of excisable products without permission from the agency.
In August 2017, several boxes and sacks of fake cigarettes along with an estimated 500 grams of suspected marijuana mixed in tea packs were confiscated by police operatives from the said factory.
The police said they discovered the illegal activity in the building upon the verification of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Records of the Legal Division of BIR-Bacolod City showed the total unpaid tax is pegged at about P18 million.
“This is the first tax evasion case filed this year,” Pagulayan said, adding the BIR has yet to go after many other taxpayers.
There are those with fancy and luxurious cars, but were found not paying taxes upon verification, he added.
In 2017, there were a total of 24 tax evasion cases filed by the Revenue District Office No. 77 in Bacolod.
Lawyer Bryl Sobrejuanite, officer-in-charge of BIR-Bacolod Legal Division, said Monday that the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 5 rendered a decision convicting a former manager of a sugar trading company based in Bacolod last January.
He said the respondent’s offense mainly include failure to obey summons.
“After several notices demanding for the books of that corporation, the manager failed to submit,” Sobrejuanite said, adding the fiscal found a probable cause against the respondent of the case filed in 2008.
The court imposed a one-year imprisonment and fine of P10,000.
The respondent, however, applied for probation.