Mighty to cooperate on tax-evasion case

- er Mighty Corp. said it was willing to cooperate with the government after being slapped a tax- evasion case worth P9.564 billion by the Bureau of Internal

“The company welcomes complaint as it provides us an opportunity to clear our names and show we violated no tax laws,” Mighty legal counsel Sig

“We will continue to cooperate with government in its continuing effort at tax collection,” he added.

- Mighty officials retired general Edilberto Adan, retired judge Oscar Barrientos, Alexander Wongchuking, and Ernesto Victa, over possession of cigarettes with false, counterfeit, restored or altered tax stamps.

Mighty Corp. manufactures Menthol, among other brands.

on- the- spot surveillance operation conducted by regional investigation division officers in San Simon Industrial Park, San Isidro, Pampanga ( SSIP), investigating officers entered four warehouses and conducted random tests of 10 master cases of cigarettes.

The warehouses which were being leased by Mighty Corp. based on a certification and contracts of lease provided by the SSIP Administrative Office.

“The tests conducted showed that the stamps are fake or not authentic. The master cases containing the said cigarettes with fake stamps were marked

An inventory also showed that Mighty Corp. stored 66,281 master cases containing 33,140,500 packs of cigarettes. The investi- gation further showed that 87.5 percent of the packs bore fake internal revenue stamps.

stamps were fake since they did not contain one of the multilayered security features of a valid internal revenue stamp.

Also, they were not affixed at the production plant of Mighty Corp. in Barangay Tikay, Malolos, Bulacan as required by law since no official delivery receipts for the SSIP warehouses were presented by the respondent company as per certification of revenue officers on pointed out.

“Such failure to present the that the cigarette packs in the SSIP warehouses did not come from the manufacturing plant in Barangay Tikay where such stamps should have been affixed. It should be noted that the warehouses in SSIP are not -

“Thus, Mighty Corporation cannot legally remove these packs of cigarettes from their only plant in Tikay, Bulacan for delivery to the said unregistered warehouses,” it explained.

possession of the said packs of cigarettes with fake internal revenue stamps is illegal and a violation of the Tax Code.

to conduct a preliminary investigation into the case and if there is probable cause, file the information before the courts.

Mighty Corp. became contro owner Wong Chuking over allegations he attempted to bribe the President amid Mighty’s alleged use of counterfeit tax stamps in their packs of cigarettes.