MANILA— Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said government revenues from sin taxes will get further boost in 2018 as Japan Tobacco Inc. (JTI) pays the remaining tax deficiencies of Mighty Corp., which it recently bought.
“The minimum of excise tax that Japan Tobacco Inc. will be paying as of January 2018 onwards is estimated at over PHP3.1 billion per month, about PHP2 billion more per month than paid by Mighty Corp,” he told journalists in a Viber message.
“For FY 2018 JTI is expected to pay almost PHP40 billion out of the estimated PHP118 billion total excise taxes on tobacco products,” he added.
The government, as part of its strengthened revenue collection, has focused on erring companies and one of these is local cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation, which registered some PHP30 billion tax deficiencies.
Last July, Mighty Corp. paid the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) about PHP3.5 billion as initial payment and the balance will be paid by JTI.
Earlier, BIR Assistant Commissioner Teresita Angeles disclosed that based on latest discussions with JTI officials the company will be paying the Bureau PHP40 million per week.
“So we are expecting the collection more or less to increase to PHP2 billion per month,” she said.
Dominguez said the initial discussions have not taken into consideration the marketing program of JTI. “If they are able to sell more of course that amount will increase,” he added.