BIR to conduct open bidding for its stamp tax project

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has decided to do an open bidding for its stamp tax project under the general procurement law, a ranking agency official said during a recent hearing of the House committee on ways and means.

During the hearing last week, BIR Assistant Commissioner James Roldan informed the committee that the agency would be pursuing another system to implement the tax stamp project for cigar and cigarettes. 

Roldan said that while the agency would no longer pursue the Sicpa tax stamp proposal, it would be bidding out whatever alternative system it would be pursuing. 

“The BIR will instead provide for another system through public bidding. The Sicpa project will no longer be pursued,” Roldan said.

This means that the BIR will no longer accept unsolicited proposals such as the Sicpa project. 

Roldan explained to the committee that under the plan, all bid proposals will have to be assessed based on the terms and reference of the project scheme which the BIR will formulate. 

The Sicpa trace system proposal came from Switzerland-based firm Sicpa but this did not materialize after lawmakers opposed the project, saying that it would translate to higher costs for the manufacturers and to the BIR. 

The Department of Justice under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration also thumbed down the Sicpa proposal but current Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has ruled that there is nothing illegal with the BIR’s plan to attach strip stamps on cigarette packs without approval from Congress. 

De Lima ruled that it was within the powers of the BIR to pass on to consumers the cost of the project as a regulatory fee. 

The proposed Sicpatrace system involves the application to tobacco products of tamper-proof strip stamps using a combination of data matrix code and fuse-on features and installation in the premises of tobacco manufacturers of scanning and activation software to monitor the number of tobacco products produced.

Rep. Hermilando Mandanas (2nd District, Batangas), committee chairman said the House Committee on Ways and Means would be waiting for updates from the BIR on the public bidding. 

He believes that any public bidding for a tax security project should have congressional approval.