Amendments to Act No. 2613 (Tobacco Inspection Law)

September 25, 1946

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 31

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS SIX, SEVEN AND FOURTEEN OF ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE TOBACCO INSPECTION LAW

 Section six of Act Numbered Twenty-six hundred and thirteen is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 6. The Collector of Internal Revenue shall have the power and it shall be his duty:

"(a) To establish general and local rules respecting the classification, marking, and packing of tobacco for domestic sale or factory use and for exportation so far as may be necessary to secure leaf tobacco of good quality and to secure its handling under sanitary conditions, and to the end that leaf tobacco be not mixed, packed, and marked as of the same quality when it is not of the same class and origin.

"(b) To establish from time to time adequate rules defining the standard and the type of leaf and manufactured tobacco which may be exported, as well also as the manner in which standard tobacco shall be packed. Before establishing the rules above specified, the Collector of Internal Revenue shall give due notice of the proposed rules or amendments to those interested and shall give them an opportunity to present their objections to such rules or amendments.

"(c) To require, whenever it shall be deemed expedient, the inspection of and affixture of inspection labels to tobacco, removed from the province of its origin to another or other provinces before such removal, or to tobacco for domestic sale or factory use."

 Section seven of Act Numbered Twenty-six hundred and thirteen is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 7. No leaf tobacco or manufactured tobacco shall be exported until it shall have been inspected by the Collector of Internal Revenue or his duly authorized representative and found to be standard for export. Collector of Customs shall not permit the exportation of tobacco from the Philippines unless the shipment be in conformity with the requirements set forth in this Act. The prohibition contained in this section shall not apply to waste and refuse tobacco accumulated in the manufacturing process when it is invoiced as such waste and refuse."

 Section fourteen of Act Numbered Twenty-six hundred and thirteen is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 14. Any person who shall export or attempt to export any tobacco that does not bear the inspection label hereinbefore required, and any person who shall knowingly violate any other provisions of this Act, or any of the rules issued by the Collector of Internal Revenue in accordance with this Act, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding five hundred pesos or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both penalties, in the discretion of the court."

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on October first, Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Six.

Approved: September 25, 1946

Not published in the Official Gazette