Jump to full article: Philippine Daily Inquirer (ph), 2008-08-21
Author: Jerome Aning
Intro: The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared as constitutional a provision of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) which levies higher taxes on cigarette brands that entered the market after 1996.
The high court en banc unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of Section 145 of the NIRC that levies new cigarette brands at their current net retail price and existing brands at their net retail price as of Oct. 1, 1996.
It also nullified two regulations imposed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue to implement the NIRC provision which empowered the bureau to reclassify or update cigarette brands every two years or so.
The case arose from a suit brought in 2003 by the British American Tobacco (BAT)
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