The Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has filed a PHP9.56 trillion ($190.1 million) case against Mighty Corp. for the alleged use of counterfeit tax stamps and non-payment of excise tax, reports The Philippine Star.
The legal action comes in the wake of seizures of cigarettes with fake tax stamps from four of the company’s warehouses in Pampanga on March 1.
According to the BIR, the warehouses contained 33.14 million cigarette packs, of which 87.5 percent carried fake tax stamps.
The agency said that there were no official delivery receipts for the cigarettes, which means the cigarettes found in the warehouses did not come from its Bulacan plant where the stamps should have been affixed.
The BIR also said that the warehouses in Pampanga were not registered with the agency.
Mighty Corp.’s attorney Sigfrid Fortun said the company welcomes the BIR case as it “provides us an opportunity to clear our names and show we violated no tax laws.”