Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua backed the proposal of Sen. Emmanuel Pacquaio to increase the excise tax on alcohol products, saying it will raise additional revenues of almost P237 billion over a five-year period.
Chua, in a recent hearing conducted by the Senate ways and means committee on the proposal to increase alcohol excise taxes, said the move would also help reduce excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks linked to vehicular crash accidents, domestic abuse, and other crimes.
Chua said like the proposed hike in cigarette taxes, increasing the excise tax on alcohol products would help close the P40-billion funding gap in the universal health care program.
Pacquiao’s Senate Bill 2197 would raise around P32.3 billion in the first year of its implementation in 2019, P40 billion in 2020, P47.4 billion in 2021, P54.6 billion in 2022 and P62.4 billion in 2023, for a total of P236.6 billion, Chua said.