Tobacco Inspection Law

 

February 4, 1916

ACT NO. 2613

AN ACT TO IMPROVE THE METHODS OF PRODUCTION AND THE QUALITY OF TOBACCO IN THE PHILIPPINES AND TO DEVELOP THE EXPORT TRADE THEREIN

SECTION 1. It is hereby provided that the Bureau of Agriculture through its agents or inspectors established in the tobacco provinces shall periodically order, whenever it shall become necessary, the purchase of seeds of well-developed tobacco plants. The seeds purchased as prescribed in this Act shall be passed through a cleaning machine with which each provincial agricultural station shall be provided, and when cleaned, shall be distributed gratuitously by the inspecting agents of the Bureau of Agriculture proportionately among the tobacco planters.

SECTION 2. It shall be unlawful for any tobacco planter or other person who has in his possession uncured or incompletely cured leaf tobacco, to cure, dry, ferment or treat same in any other manner, outside than in a building or curing shed constructed in accordance with the specifications of the Bureau of Agriculture. This provision shall not apply to those who produce tobacco on a small scale exclusively for their own consumption. During a period of three years after the passage of this Act, the Director of Forestry shall issue to any producer of tobacco a gratuitous license to cut timber of the first group for the construction of warehouses exclusively for the curing of tobacco.

SECTION 3. The Director of Agriculture is hereby authorized to appoint in any tobacco province the necessary inspectors to carry out the purposes of this Act. Said inspectors shall preferably be residents of the province where they are to serve and persons of great influence and proven knowledge in matters relating to the planting and production of tobacco shall be selected. Their salary shall be fixed in their appointments, but shall not exceed twelve hundred pesos per annum each and they shall not be subject to the Civil Service rules. Said tobacco inspectors shall receive a per diem not greater than two pesos when they are performing inspections outside of the municipality of their official station, together with actual and necessary traveling expenses.

SECTION 4. For the purpose of stimulating the production of the best tobacco among tobacco planters, the Director of Agriculture may classify planters as first-class and second-class planters, and may grant diplomas to planters or producers for excellence in the production of tobacco.

SECTION 5. The Collector of Internal Revenue is empowered by this Act to announce contests for the purpose of discovering some remedy against tobacco pests and may grant from the fund known as the Tobacco Inspection Fund the amount which he considers necessary to reward the discoverer of a remedy which in his opinion proves to be the most efficient of those offered in the contest.

SECTION 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 for exportation to the United States 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 to the United States, as well also as the manner in which standard tobacco for export, whether it be leaf tobacco or manufactured 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.

SECTION 7. No leaf tobacco or manufactured tobacco shall be exported from the Philippine Islands to the United States 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 Philippine Islands 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 of tobacco accumulated in the manufacturing process, when it is invoiced and marked as such waste and refuse.

SECTION 8. For inspections made in accordance with this Act, there shall be collected a fee of thirty centavos for each thousand cigars or fraction thereof in the lot offered for inspection, three centavos for each thousand cigarettes or fraction thereof in the lot offered for inspection, twenty-five centavos for each one hundred kilograms of leaf tobacco or fraction thereof in the lot offered for inspection, and one centavo for each kilogram or fraction thereof of other manufactured tobacco in the lot offered for inspection.

SECTION 9. The Collector of Internal Revenue may appoint inspectors of tobacco for the purpose of making the inspections herein required, or may detail any officer or employee of the Bureau to perform such duty. Said inspectors or employees shall likewise be charged with the duty of grading leaf tobacco and shall perform such other duties as may be required of them in the promotion of the Philippine tobacco industry. The Collector of Internal Revenue shall likewise appoint, with the approval of the Secretary of Finance and Justice, not exceeding two agents in the United States for the purpose of promoting the export trade in tobacco with the United States, whose duty it shall be to inspect shipments of tobacco upon or after their arrival in that country when so required, to assist manufacturers of, exporters of, and dealers in tobacco in disseminating information regarding Philippine tobacco and, at the request of the parties, to act as arbitrators between the exporter in the Philippine Islands and the importer in the United States whenever a dispute arises between them as to the quality, sizes, classes, or shapes shipped or received. When acting as arbitrator as aforesaid, the agent shall proceed in accordance with the law governing arbitration and award in the locality where the dispute arises. All agents, inspectors, and employees acting under and by virtue of this Act shall be subject to all penal provisions applicable to internal-revenue officers generally.

SECTION 10. Whenever cigars and cigarettes bearing the standard inspection label hereinbefore required, shall arrive in the United States in a worm-eaten, musty, or moldy condition, or shall become worm-eaten within sixty days after arrival, the United States agent hereinbefore provided for, shall inspect same at the request of the importer or dealer and cause them to be reconditioned if practicable; if not, and the importer or dealer so desires, they shall be returned to the Philippine Islands. Expenses incurred in reconditioning such cigars in the United States or in transporting them back to the Philippine islands from the place to which consigned when they left the Philippine Islands shall be borne by the Insular Government.

SECTION 11. In order to facilitate the free entry of tobacco products from the Philippine Islands into the United States, the Collector of Internal Revenue is authorized to act as stamp agent for the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and to certify to the insular Collector of Customs that the standard tobacco exported is the growth and product of the Philippine Islands. The Insular Collector of Customs upon certificate from the Collector of Internal Revenue as aforesaid, shall issue such certificate of origin as may be necessary to insure the speedy admission of the standard tobacco into the United States free of customs duties. No such certificate shall be issued for tobacco which has not been inspected and labelled as provided in this Act. AEaSTC

SECTION 12. The inspection fees collected by virtue of the provisions of this Act shall constitute a special fund to be known as the Tobacco Inspection Fund, which shall be expended by the Collector of Internal Revenue, upon allotment by the Secretary of Finance and Justice, exclusively for the following purposes:

(a) The payment of the expenses incident to the enforcement of this Act, including the salaries of the inspectors and agents.

(b) The payment of expenses incident to the reconditioning and returning to the Philippine Islands of damaged tobacco and the reimbursement of the value of the United States internal-revenue stamps lost thereby.

(c) The advertising of Philippine tobacco products.

(d) The establishment of tobacco warehouses in the Philippine Islands and in the United States at such points as the trade conditions may demand.

(e) The payment of bounties to encourage the production of leaf tobacco of high quality.

SECTION 13. The Collector of Internal Revenue shall be the executive officer charged with the enforcement of the provisions of this Act and of the regulations issued in accordance therewith, but it shall be the duty of the Director of Agriculture, with the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction, to execute and enforce the provisions hereof referring to the cultivation of tobacco.

SECTION 14. Any person who shall export or attempt to export from the Philippine Islands to the United States 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 15. There is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated the sum of fifteen thousand pesos which sum shall be made a part of the Tobacco Inspection Fund hereinbefore created, and which shall be expended for the purposes and in the manner set forth for the expenditure of said fund.

SECTION 16. This Act shall take effect upon its passage: Provided, That any penal provisions contained herein for infractions of the provisions of this Act or of the regulations prescribed by the Collector of Internal Revenue, shall not be enforced until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and sixteen.

Enacted: February 4, 1916.