BIR Ruling [UN-004-96]

January 2, 1996 BIR RULING [UN-004-96] House of Representatives Quezon City Metro Manila Attention: Mr . Donald Z . Marasigan Technical Staff Chief Committee on Ways & Means Gentlemen : This refers to your letter dated October 18, 1995, requesting information regarding the (1) History of excise tax payments on beer products for the last five (5) years of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Asia Brewery Inc. (ABI) and (2) History of price changes of the various beer products for the last five years based on the Sworn Statements submitted by the abovenamed companies. cdta In reply, please be informed that your request for information concerning the excise tax payments on beer products for the last five (5) years of SMC and ABI cannot be granted in view of the prohibition under Section 269 of the Tax code, as amended, which provides viz: "SEC. 269 Unlawful divulgence of trade secrets . Except as provided in Section 64 of this Code and Section 26 of Republic Act Numbered 6388, any officer or employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who divulges to any person or makes known in any other manner than may be provided by law information regarding the business, income, or estate of any taxpayer, the secrets, operation, style of work, or apparatus of any manufacturer or producer, or confidential information regarding the business of any taxpayer, knowledge of which was acquired by him in the discharge of his official duties, shall, upon conviction for each act or omission, be fined in a sum of not less than five thousand pesos but not more than ten thousand pesos, or imprisoned for a term of not less than six months but not more than five years, or both. (as inserted by PD 1994) As regards the history of price changes of beer products based on the Sworn Statements submitted by SMC and ABI for the last five (5) years, it is regretted that this Office has no existing files of the desired documents, the same having been transmitted to our Regional and District Offices when the devolution of functions were effected in May, 1994. We are however, submitting herewith some papers showing data regarding the historical tax rates on fermented liquor and annual report on collections from fermented liquor as well as the wholesale prices of fermented liquor of SMC as of May 22, 1995 and that of ABI as of December 1994, which might be of help in the study being conducted by the Office regarding the propose changes in the system and/or rates of taxation on beer products. cdtech Very truly yours, LIWAYWAY VINZONS-CHATO Commissioner of Internal Revenue