According to reports from Manila media in the Philippines, government authorities have urgently called for an investigation into the sales permits and licenses of many e-cigarette companies, due to concerns regarding possible tax evasion and violations of relevant guidelines.
During Tuesday's hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Representative Joey Salceda of Albay's Second District requested attendees to examine their online shopping apps and look for Denkat Philippines, one of the two e-cigarette companies involved in House Resolution (HR) 1437.
House Resolution No. 1437, proposed by Rufus Rodriguez, representative of the second district of Cagayan de Oro City, highlights the discovery of e-cigarette products worth approximately 1.43 billion pesos in a warehouse in Valencia City, Philippines by the Bureau of Customs. This finding suggests the possibility of significant tax evasion amounting to billions of pesos.
Sarseda, while questioning the customs intellectual property department, stated, "Everyone, open Google, search for Lazada and input Denkat. What products do you see being sold there?" The search results revealed various advertisements by Flava, an e-cigarette company also included in the list of HR1437 resolution.
One of the main topics of the hearing was whether the two companies were falsely labeling their products, mistakenly labeling nicotine salt e-cigarettes as traditional freebase nicotine e-cigarettes. It was also urged for customs to investigate e-cigarette companies suspected of tax evasion, as the potential lost tax revenue could amount to up to 7.3 billion pesos if it is confirmed that the products contain nicotine salts instead of freebase nicotine. The hearing also decided to subpoena three employees from Flava and Denkat Philippines to appear in court.
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