AT least 240,550 pieces of illicit vape products with an estimated tax liability of P1.539 billion were destroyed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as part of its crackdown on illegal trade.
A statement issued by the BIR on Tuesday read that the BIR’s Revenue Region 6-Manila and Palawan carried out the destruction on August 24 at the Digama Waste Management Facility in Porac, Pampanga.
Revenue Region 6 Director Remir Macatangay said the BIR has expanded its enforcement operations, covering retail establishments to warehouses.
‘We started with retail stores and expanded to warehouses. This led to our operation against Tap Fog Philippines, the largest single illicit vape enforcement operation conducted by the BIR to date,’ Macatangay was quoted as saying.
Some of the vape products destroyed were those seized during the BIR’s enforcement operations against Tap Fog Philippines, which was found liable for tax evasion and whose owners were subsequently issued arrest warrants by the Court of Tax Appeals and the Metropolitan Trial Court in 2024.
‘Enforcement does not end with seizure. We must permanently remove illicit vape products from the market and hold accountable those behind their illegal manufacture, importation, distribution and sale,’ Commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza said.
The BIR said the destruction was part of its efforts to curb the sale of illicit vape products and protect government revenues and businesses that comply with tax regulations.
The government lost an estimated P23 billion from illicit vape products over the past two years, according to findings from the European Union-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (EU-Asean) Business Council (EU-ABC) and Euromonitor International’s report.
Among Asean countries, the Philippines recorded the highest government revenue loss from e-vapes in 2025 at P12.1 billion.
Currently, nicotine salt and conventional freebase or classic nicotine vape products are taxed at P60.20 per milliliter and P6.95 per milliliter, respectively.
Illicit vape trade is rampant in the Philippines, with 85.6 percent of electronic vapes sold in the Philippines being illicit, outnumbering legal sales at only 14.4 percent.