CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)–An official of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Revenue Region 16 warned illicit cigarette traders of the civil and criminal cases that they would face if they will not cease their illegal operations.
“It’s time for you to be serious about it. The government or the BIR is very serious about running after evaders,” said Assistant Regional Director Rufo Ranario, stressing that illicit trading is also classified as tax evasion.
He also told retailers that they should only sell real cigarettes that come from legal sources so that they won’t have to deal with problems every time the BIR does enforcement work.
Ranario raised the warning following the Bureau’s nationwide simultaneous enforcement activity against unscrupulous cigarette traders, Wednesday, January 25.
The crackdown marked the first time in BIR’s history that such large-scale, coordinated operations were carried out.
In the jurisdiction of BIR-RR16, 19 operations in Iligan City and Misamis Oriental were conducted during the day.
Ranario said the synchronized crackdown is just the beginning of BIR’s war against unscrupulous traders. (APB/PIA-10)
