Procedure for Effective Supervision on the Use of Cigarette Strip Stamps

June 29, 1962 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 35-62 SUBJECT : Procedure for Effective Supervision on the Use of Cigarette Strip Stamps TO : All Internal Revenue Officers and Others Concerned In order to effectively supervise the use of cigarette strip stamps by cigarette factories to prevent their use of the alleged overprinted cigarette strip stamps printed by Toppan Printing Company or fake cigarette strip stamps, the following procedure is hereby prescribed for the guidance of all concerned: cdi 1. The continued use of cigarette strip stamps printed by Toppan Printing Company by cigarette factories will be stopped until such time as all safeguards to prevent the use of stamps coming from sources other than the Bureau of Internal Revenue have been made and replacements of those that will be recalled are made available. To determined the quantity of cigarette strip stamps in the hands of cigarette factories, a simultaneous stock-taking will be conducted at a date to be announced by the Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue. After the stock taking all the unaffixed cigarette strip stamps in cigarette factories will be recalled as soon as replacements of the same denominations and quantities are made available. 2. All stamps printed by Toppan Printing Company will be superimposed with the following: (SGD.) JOSE B. LINGAD JOSE B. LINGAD Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue In order not to disrupt the operation of the cigarette factories while the "Toppan" stamps are being processed or superimposed and at the same time insure the use by the factories concerned of genuine stamps, the unused stamps in the Bureau printed by the American Bank Note Company and Thomas de la Rue & Co., Ltd. in the quantities and denominations available will be issued to the factory concerned either as replacements of the "Toppan" stamps recalled or as sales. 3. The present stock of stamps printed by the American Bank Note Company and Thomas de la Rue & Co., Ltd., in denominations where there are enough stock on hand will be temporarily used in the following manner: a) Stamps of the P2.50 per M, 20's at P0.05 printed by the American Bank Note Company which have become obsolete by virtue of the provisions of Revenue Regulations No. V-72 discontinuing the packing of cigarettes of the P2.50 per M, class in 20's, will be surcharged and changed into the denomination of P3.75 per M, 20's at P0.075, which is one of those denominations in big demand. b) Stamps of the P8.00 per M, 20's at P0.16 in the amount of 290,000,000 pieces and P12.00 per M, 20's at P0.24 in the amount of 35,000,000 pieces will be issued to cigarette factories as replacement for recalled stamps of the Toppan Printing Company of the same denomination or as sales. 4. The present stock of "Toppan" stamps in the possession of the Accountable Forms Committee as well as those to be recalled in accordance with the preceding paragraph will all be sent to the Bureau of Printing for superimposition of the name of the Commissioner across the stamp as provided for in paragraph 2 hereof. While all the stamps will be superimposed the following priority should be followed based on the frequency and quantity of the sales made by this Office: (1) P2.50 per M, 30's at P0.075 (2) P3.75 per M, 30's at P0.1125 (3) P8.00 per M, 20's at P0.16 (4) P12.00 per M, 20's at P0.24 As soon as the superimposing of the above-enumerated denominations are finished, the rest of the denominations will follow. When there are enough stock of superimposed stamps, the remaining "Toppan" stamps in cigarette factories which have not yet been recalled will then be replaced by the superimposed stamps. 5. All stamps recalled from cigarette factories for replacement should be surrendered to the Accountable Forms Committee. The Committee should check the quantity of stamps received and when the quantity checks with the report of the Stock-Taking Group, they shall be immediately replaced. The Committee is enjoined to take all the necessary measures for the proper accounting of the stamps recalled and the stamps issued as replacement. 6. Upon receipt of the recalled stamps from each factory and after they have been duly replaced, the package of recalled strip stamps should be sealed to prevent its mixing with the stamps received from the other factories. The Committee should forward the stamps to the Laboratory Section of the Alcohol Tax Division for analysis. To prevent the mixing of stamps in the Laboratory Section the Committee should see to it that the stamps are forwarded to the said section separately by factory. 7. The cigarette factories from who the cigarette strip stamps were recalled should be informed that while they are being replaced with an equal number of stamps of the same denomination, the factory will be held liable for the civil and criminal penalties, if any fake or spurious stamps is discovered by the Laboratory Section from the bunch of cigarette strip stamps taken from the factory concerned. 8. The sale of cigarette strip stamps printed by the American Bank Note Company or Thomas de la Rue & Co., Ltd. which will be temporarily used as provided in paragraph 3 hereof, will be done in the same manner as the sale of regular cigarette strip stamps. cdll (SGD.) JOSE B. LINGAD Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue