BIR launches cigarette stamp verifier app

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said the public may now download the Stamp Verifier app on their smartphones to determine if the cigarettes they are smoking have paid the right taxes by the manufacturer.

“They (public) should be able to know that you are paying the right taxes. They have been complaining that they do so others should do too, so here is their chance,” Internal Revenue commissioner Kim Henares said in a phone interview.

The app was developed by IRSIS Corp., a joint venture of four information technology firms, granted the contract to supply the tobacco stamps in 2013 to track down illegal cigarettes.

Under RA 8240, the tax agency is required to install stamps on all locally-sold cigarettes to ensure they paid excise taxes. Those for export does not bear the stamp.

Each stamp has a unique identifier code (UIC) which the mobile app could scan and verify, the BIR said.

“Cigarette packs with ‘invalid QR code’ contains a UIC which is neither in the database...nor does it match the corresponding data elements, concluding that these are either smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes,” the circular said.

Henares is urging the public to report to the BIR if they find an invalid UIC on their cigarettes so that a probe may be conducted.

The app can be downloaded for free by both iOS and Android phone users.

“BIR, based on the evaluated information, shall institute actions on persons responsible for the manufacture/sale of these cigarette packs,” the circular said.

Cigarette excise taxes – also called “sin” tax – form part of the bureau’s revenue collections, which account for around 80 percent of total state revenues.

In the first two months of the year, sin taxes from tobacco products reached P10.86 billion, up 10.86 percent from the same period last year.

The increase could be attributed from a new round of excise levy increase that took effect on Jan. 1 under RA 10351.

The law restructured excise taxes in both tobacco and liquor products and mandated that they increase by specific rates until 2017.

After which, succeeding years will see rates rise by four percent.