Tobacco group scores Sicpa for false claims

The Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI) said that it debunked claims of a Swiss-based company that the government stands to gain P100 billion in revenues should its controversial tax stamp technology be adopted.

Rodolfo Salanga, PTI president issued the statement amidst what he calls a renewed sales pitch by Sicpa Security Solutions SA (Sicpa).

Salanga said the sales talk is a desperate attempt of Sicpa to convince lawmakers that its technology is superior to other systems being offered to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) when in reality, the SICPATRACE system only passed 35 out of the 83 listed criteria for technical requirements and has met only 11 percent of the listed functional/business requirements listed by the BIR.

Sicpa recently submitted its position paper to the oversight subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means tasked to monitor the implementation of the BIR of a tax monitoring system for cigarettes.

In its position paper, Sicpa reiterated that the country stands to gain more than P100 billion in just seven years and plug multi-billion tax leakages if its system is implemented which claims Salanga finds incredulous.

Salanga also challenged Sicpa to appear before the oversight subcommittee to substantiate its claims which said company has failed to do during the extensive public hearings conducted by the Committee on Ways and Means (Committee) in the 14th Congress.