Cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp. must pay P3 billion worth of taxes in full, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said.
Aguirre was referring to the compromise tax deal demanded by President Rodrigo Duterte from Mighty, the oldest Filipino cigarette company.
“The President is asking for only P3 billion in one full payment if the government wants to have its cases against MC dropped,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre noted that the President said the tax evasion complaint filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue against MC might drag on for years in court, thus, the compromise was in order for the government to be able to utilize the hefty sum on urgent needs.
BIR officials conducting the auditing of Mighty’s warehouses were reportedly clearing only 80 master cases a day in the San Simon, Pampanga warehouse where the government seized 73,244 master cases. Each master case contained 50 reams or 500 packs that BIR officials were scanning one by one.
Duterte earlier pronounced that the P3 billion would be given to the Department of Health to construct much-needed hospitals in the war-torn provinces of Basilan and Sulu.
The DoJ formed a panel of prosecutors composed of senior assistant state prosecutor Sebastian Caponong Jr. as chairman and assistant state prosecutors Ma. Lourdes Uy and Mary Ann Parong as members to conduct the preliminary investigation over the tax evasion complaint filed by the BIR.
The BIR filed against the homegrown cigarette firm a complaint for unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment and for allegedly possessing false, counterfeit, restored or altered stamps in violation of Sections 263 and 265(c) of the National Revenue Code of 1997.