BACOLOD CITY — A manufacturer of fake cigarettes here has been charged with tax evasion by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Region 12 before the City Prosecutor’s on Monday.
Police raided the factory based in Barangay Bata last August and seized several boxes and sacks of fake cigarettes along with an estimated 500 grams of suspected marijuana mixed with tea.
Revenue Region 12 Director Eduardo Pagulayan Jr. said the owner was charged for non-payment of excise taxes and possession of excisable products without permission from the BIR.
The establishment has unpaid taxes of about PHP18 million, based on the records of the Legal Division of Revenue District Office (RDO) No. 77 in Bacolod City.
Pagulayan said it was the first tax evasion filed by RDO No. 77 this year, after the 24 tax evasion cases it lodged last year.
Meanwhile, Bryl Sobrejuanite, RDO No. 77 Legal Division officer-in-charge, said the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 5 handed down a decision convicting a former manager of a sugar trading company last January month.
He said the respondent’s offense was mainly failure to obey summons for the case filed in 2008 yet.
“After several notices demanding for the books of that corporation, the manager still failed to submit,” Sobrejuanite said.
The respondent sought probation from the one-year imprisonment and PHP10,000 fine. (Erwin Nicavera/PNA)
