REVENUE REGULATIONS NO. 6-2017 issued on October 12, 2017 amends certain provisions of RR No. 7-2014 which prescribes the affixture of Internal Revenue Stamps (IRS) on imported and locally-manufactured cigarettes and the use of Internal Revenue Stamp Integrated System (IRSIS) for the ordering, distribution and monitoring thereof. The new IRS comes in five (5) different color designs according to whether the cigarettes are packed by hand or by machine (bearing a unitary tax rate), for locally-manufactured cigarettes; or imported cigarettes or for export. IRS may be ordered in banderols or pre-cut/stack or in sheets according to the machine requirements of the importer or the local manufacturers. After the approval of the order of IRS and prior to its release from the APO designated plant, the price thereof shall be paid by the importer or local manufacturer of cigarettes to APO in the amount of Fifteen Centavos (P 0.15) per piece of IRS. The IRS shall be affixed at the upper portion of the immediate container of the cigarettes (e.g. hard pack, soft pack, tin can, shall include the packages containing cigarettes packed in five (5) sticks and/or ten (10) sticks, etc.), regardless of the number of sticks contained therein. Provided further, that cigarettes packed in five (5) sticks and/or ten (10) sticks bundled in packs of twenties (20) and other packaging combinations of not more than twenty (20) shall be taxed as one, but the IRS affixed to these cigarettes shall be equivalent to the number of packs bundled together. All locally-manufactured packs of cigarettes to be removed from place of production shall be affixed with the new IRS not later than January 1, 2018. With respect to imported cigarettes, no importation and subsequent release of cigarette from customs house shall be allowed unless the new IRS shall have been affixed thereto effective June 1, 2018. Effective September 1, 2018, all cigarettes manufactured in the Philippines and/or imported into the Philippines found in the market shall have been affixed with the said new stamps.