BIR raids illegal cigarette printing facility
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raided a big warehouse in Nueva Ecija that was the size of five basketball courts for alleged illegal production of counterfeit cigarette labels and packaging materials.
The printing presses were churning out cigarette labels and printed packaging materials, according to the BIR Tobacco Strike Team, which may supply the illicit cigarette trade, as seen by the almost weekly seizures of counterfeit cigarettes in Luzon and the National Capital Region.
The printing facility was housed in two adjoining warehouses in a village in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. The raid, which took place on January 28 this year was also joined by local and regional police forces.
Remedios Advincula, director of the BIR Tobacco Strike Team, said the warehouse, which was immediately padlocked, was seized with tobacco raw materials; press machines; and other printing equipment, including rolls of printing papers, pails of powder ink, drums of alcohol solvent, and drums of printing gas.
The projected value of the several seized machines and printing supplies from the Cabanatuan warehouse, which could reach into billions depending on the scale of the operation, he noted, was still being assessed by the authorities.
Due to its scale, the Cabanatuan warehouse was even described by industry sources as a “one-stop-shop printing mall.”
The Cabanatuan raid of the printing facility came on the heels of another raid by the Bureau of Customs and police units on January 18 this year in a Valenzuela City warehouse containing illicit cigarettes and also on Jan. 4, 2022 in Subic freeport, where three container vans with counterfeit cigarettes were seized.
Based on the latest report produced by the European Union-Asean Business Council and Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade, the government loses roughly P10.7 billion in tax revenues annually owing to illegal tobacco trade.