The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has issued a ruling on how it would compute the tax share of four Virginia tobacco provinces from excise tax collections of the BIR.

In a recently issued regulation, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and BIR Commissioner Lilian Hefti said the 15 per cent share of tobacco-producing provinces from cigarette excise tax revenues is to be based on the actual excise taxes collected annually from locally-manufactured Virginia cigarettes.
According to the BIR, the regulation covers cigarettes which use Virginia-type leaf tobacco, whether imported or locally produced, as one of the raw materials.
The BIR’s ruling will allow the four tobacco-producing provinces to maximize the financial assistance of the government for the developmental projects in the covered areas.
Virginia tobacco, the most dominant tobacco type in the country, is commercially grown in the four Ilocos provinces of Abra, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La Union. (sra)