Manila, April 6 -- The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said Monday it has padlocked a warehouse illegally manufacturing tobacco products inside the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga where 1.65 million packs of cigarettes supposedly intended for export to Malaysia were seized by its strike team.
In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the BIR said the warehouse of GB-BEM Cigarette Co. Inc. operating as a cigarette factory was closed last February 5 because of its failure to secure a permit to operate as required to manufacture cigarettes.
"The company claims that it has a tolling agreement with a Malaysian-based client and that the cigarettes are 100 percent exported. However, the finished products did not bear any ma...