Sicpa determined to bag contract with BIR

MANILA, Philippines - Switzerland-based SICPA Product Security SA is determined to bag the multi-billion contract with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to provide tamper proof security stamps on cigarettes and alcohol products, said a ranking BIR official who heads the team negotiating with the Swiss firm.

BIR deputy commissioner Lilia Guillermo said SICPA officials have committed to lower the entire project cost, which has been the issue raised by tobacco manufacturers.

“They (SICPA) are very cooperative. They agreed to lower the project cost,” Guillermo said.

Another BIR official said SICPA also assured that the government’s excise tax collections would increase once the project is in place.

A team from SICPA Switzerland arrived last month to start negotiations with the BIR for its stamp-tax project intended to curb smuggling of cigarette and alcohol products through enhanced monitoring of these products.

This followed the greenlight given by the Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-ICC) to the BIR to negotiate with SICPA. The Swiss firm earlier submitted an unsolicited proposal to provide security stamps on cigarettes and alcohol products.

Guillermo, who heads the BIR Information Systems Group, earlier said the BIR would renegotiate for the lowering of the project cost.

If the project cost would be lowered, Guillermo said this would translate to a 20-centavo to 30-centavo additional increase per pack in the price of cigarettes from the initial estimate of 50-centavo increase in cigarette prices.

Guillermo said a 20-centavo increase is feasible.

“A 20-centavo increase is acceptable to us,” she said.

The BIR official nevertheless declined to give a ballpark figure on the new project cost.

Guillermo said SICPA plans to set up its Manila office at the BSP building should it finally bag the contract.

She also said SICPA has been working with the BSP since the Swiss company has been supplying the monetary authority with its own tamper-proof ink used to print currencies and other sovereign documents.

Lawmakers have questioned the SICPA project but Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has assured that there is nothing final in the ongoing negotiations of the BIR with the Swiss firm, stressing that a “process” has to be observed.

He earlier said that even if the BIR wraps up its negotiations with SICPA for the latter’s stamp-tax technology project, the proposal would still be sent back to the NEDA for board approval and subsequently be subjected to a Swiss Challenge.