Republic Act No. 5449

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:

Section 1

Section one hundred thirty-three of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 133. Specific tax on distilled spirits.— On distilled spirits there shall be collected subject to the provisions of Section one hundred and twenty-eight of this Act, except as hereinafter provided, specific taxes as follows:

"(a) If produced from sap of the nipa, coconut, cassava, camote, or buri palm, or from the juice, syrup, or sugar of the same cane, per proof liter seventy-seven centavos: Provided, That if produced in a pot still or other similar primary distilling apparatus, by a distiller producing not more than one hundred liters a day, containing not more than fifty per centum of alcohol by volume, per proof liter, seventy centavos.

"(b) If produced from any other materials, per proof liter, twenty pesos.

"This tax shall be proportionally increased for any strength of the spirits taxed over proof spirits.

" "Distilled spirits," as here used, include all substances known as ethyl alcohol, hydrated oxide of ethyl, or spirits of wines, which are commonly produced by the fermentation and subsequent distillation of grain, starch, molasses or sugar, or of some syrup or sap, including all dilutions or mixtures; and the tax shall attach to this substance as soon as it is in existence as such, whether it be subsequently separated as pure or impure spirits, or be immediately or at any subsequent time transformed into any other substances either in process of original production or by any subsequent process.

" "Proof spirits" is liquor containing one-half of its volume of alcohol of a specific gravity of seven thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine ten-thousandths at fifteen degrees centigrade. A proof liter means a liter of proof spirits."

Section 2

Section one hundred thirty-five of the same Code, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 135. Specific tax on fermented liquors.— On beer, lager beer, ale, porter and other fermented liquors (except tuba, basi, tapuy and similar domestic fermented liquors), there shall be collected, on each liter of volume capacity, twenty-seven and one-half centavos."

Section 3

Section one hundred sixty-four of the same Code, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 164. Denaturing within premises.— For purposes of this title, the process of denaturing alcohol shall be effected only within the distillery premises where the alcohol to be denatured is produced in accordance with formulas duly approved by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and only in the presence of duly designated representatives of said bureau."

Section 4

This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: September 25, 1968.