Philippine Tax Authority: E-cigarette Companies Evaded Taxes Amounting To 870 Million Pesos

According to the Manila Times' news report on April 30th: The Philippine Internal Revenue Service (BIR) filed criminal charges against the electronic cigarette enterprises under the Flava, Denkat, and Flare brands on Tuesday, accusing them of evading taxes amounting to nearly 8.7 billion pesos.
Tax局局长 Romeo Lumagui Jr. led the submission of this document to the Department of Justice, marking a more severe crackdown on illegal participants in the growing electronic cigarette market.
The Philippine Tax Service has filed criminal tax evasion lawsuits against large illegal electronic cigarette enterprises. They failed to pay 8.7 billion pesos in taxes," Lumagui said.
"We have warned all those who want to enter the electronic cigarette industry to register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and pay the corresponding taxes. This is the consequence of your continuous violation of tax laws," he added.
According to the National Internal Revenue Code, these enterprises face multiple serious charges, including illegally holding untaxed electronic cigarette products, failing to submit consumption tax declaration forms, and intentionally evading taxes.
Lumagui previously stated that increasing the tax on electronic cigarettes would help the agency achieve its consumption tax target for this year.
This year, the agency's target is to collect 343.1 billion pesos in consumption tax.
Lumagui also warned that this is just the beginning. For illegal electronic cigarette sellers, regardless of their size, they will face more charges.
"There will be more criminal cases against illegal electronic cigarette traders. No matter the size of your business, as long as you sell illegal electronic cigarettes, you will be imprisoned," Lumagui said.
He added： "If celebrities and influential people are found to have colluded with illegal electronic cigarette traders, they will also be imprisoned. Illegal electronic cigarettes are now over."
Lumagui also called on advertisers and influential people to be cautious when promoting electronic cigarette products and warned that endorsing non-compliant brands could lead to legal consequences.