Philippine Vape Festival Packed with Illicit Products

During the Philippine Vape Festival, held in August, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) seized over 5,000 illicit vape products displayed and offered for sale at the event. The main way of identifying the vapes were illicit was their lack of tax stamps.

Ironically, the BIR said the festival was supposed to have been a ‘compliance summit’ to discuss conformity with ‘current regulation and policy changes’.

But given that BIR operatives had been tasked with the covert surveillance of the festival, upon the orders of Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr, it doesn’t appear that the tax authority had much faith that all the products on sale there would be legitimate.