Bulacan-based cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation downplays allegations that it had underpaid excise taxes for sales registered in 2013. The company reported that they have paid a total of P8.2 billion in excise taxes last year. The said tax payment was based on an average market share of 13.7 percent for the 12 months of last year.
Mighty Corp. Executive Vice President and Spokesman Oscar Barrientos said, “Allegations that Mighty Corp. did not pay the correct taxes for 2013 are grossly inaccurate and downright ridiculous. Our critics had most likely misunderstood the data from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The taxes we paid for the year 2013 reflects the jump in our market share and our fair share in the increased taxes on ‘sin’ products last year. We closed the year with a 22.5 percent market share. We started 2013 with three percent,” Barrientos said referring to the remarkable sales accomplishment that the only wholly Filipino-owned tobacco company.
Barrientos added that slowly but surely Might Corp. grew its market share over the past 12 months on the strength of their production efficiencies and a sound national sales distribution strategy. He also said that they did not have a 20 percent year-round market share average as what their critics have maliciously implied in connection to tax evasion allegations.
He also emphasized that Mighty Corp., a company owned by the Wong Chu King family, is being accused of evading payment of P4 billion in excise taxes, which he sees as baseless like the other earlier accusations that was thrown at them by competitors from unfair business practices to smuggling that the company have denied in previous reports.
Barrientos assures the public that they have not engaged in the said wrongdoings and explained, “The first time we hit 20 percent market share was in December 2013. Our critics computed excise tax dues on 20 percent market share year-round. Of course there will be a discrepancy. They give new meaning to the term ‘creative accounting.’ The truth is, we paid the right taxes.”
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