A group of businessmen celebrated the closure of Mighty Corp's custom bonded warehouse. The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Department of Finance (DOF) ordered the full shutdown of Mighty's warehouse.
Due to the alleged technical smuggling raised by Mighty Corp's competitors, DOF and Bureau of Internal Revenue officials conducted an immediate probe to all the facilities of Mighty Corporation in Malolos, Bulacan. In a press conference, the government investigators said the temporary closure of the warehouse was initiated to give the auditors a better understanding on the alleged raw materials that were not subject to tariff.
Effect of Custom Bonded Warehouse Closure
Despite the shutdown, Mighty's daily operation has not been interrupted since the cigarette company is more focused in domestic distribution than exporting tobacco products. The closure of the warehouse didn't hinder them to increase their market share. In fact, Mighty Corp continues to gain more patrons in the last few months leading them to increase their tobacco leaves purchase to an overwhelming 10-million kilograms. The bulk orders will be coming from the harvest in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and other parts of the country.
The shutdown of Mighty's Custom Bonded Warehouse will have a major effect if and only if the firm is inclined to cigarette exports. CBW contains duty-free imported items which should be exported after its post processing. This only covers a little fraction of the cigarette production of Mighty Corp. Thus, the low-priced cigarette maker continues to earn big profit through the local market.
Meanwhile, despite the series of malicious claims by Mighty's competitors, Wongchuking's kindness to Filipinos is still evident through various programs that his firm launched during the last quarter in 2013. Allow me to elaborate some of the beneficial programs of Mighty Corporation.
MC assured the farmers of more income. Mighty pledged to give Tobacco dust to fishpond owners, which in return would increase the demand of golden leaves.
WongChuking's foundation helps the retrofitting of historic churches all over the Philippines. The foundation is out to help reconstruct the damaged churches in Bohol and Cebu following the destructive earthquake last year.
In 2013, the foundation donated Php300,000 for textbooks and other school materials of Lyceum de Amulung in cagayan, Tuguegarao City. The Wonghchuking family is also involved in other social and community development programs outside Luzon.
Having that said, I personally believe that Mighty Corp is not operating at a huge loss since the firm can still afford to finance big projects on top of Mighty's expenses. Now, one last thing, can we let the government investigate the custom bonded warehouses owned by other cigarette manufacturers too?