Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Tuesday ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs to track the source of counterfeit cigarette machines that were allegedly smuggled into the country.
Dominguez instructed officials of the BIR and BoC to trace the manufacturer of the machines and travel to the country of their origin to investigate the illegal entry of the cigarette-making units via Philippine ports.
“Look for the manufacturers, then file complaints before the concerned embassies there,” Dominguez told BIR commissioner Caesar Dulay and Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña during an executive committee meeting.
Dominguez issued these directives after the BIR reported that several cigarette-making machines were confiscated in Cagayan de Oro City and were now under the custody of the bureau’s strike team and the Excise Large Taxpayers Field Operations Division.
Dominguez said the machines had no import permits and the manufacturer who used them did not have a permit to operate, making the entire process illegal. Two factories in Cagayan de Oro yielded four unregistered cigarette making machines, six packaging machines and a filter making machine during recent operations also conducted by the BIR strike team.