A GROUP is protesting a surprise insertion favoring a lower tax rate for tobacco products in Congress, saying that may result in 200,000 more Filipinos taking up the deadly vice.
New Vois Association of the Philippines president Emer Rojas said Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo did not hold any public consultations when he inserted the tobacco tax rate in the House’s version of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN bill.
“The insertion was done in haste and there was no public consultation held to at least have an informed discussion on the issue before this provision was accommodated by the House,” Rojas said.
He said Quimbo’s version of the excise tax rate (P2.50 per pack) on top of the current P30 was too low compared to the P60 proposed by tobacco-control advocates at P60.
He said the inserted tobacco tax rate would not even make a difference to finance the Duterte administration’s BUILD BUILD BUILD program, while a P60 per pack tax rate would automatically generate for the government P40 billion in revenues from tobacco alone.
He said having an acceptable tax rate on tobacco was important to curb smoking, which was proven when the government signed the amended sin tax in 2012 that resulted in one million Filipinos quitting smoking.
Rojas warned that requiring the tobacco industry to pay a measly additional P2.50 tax per pack tax would reverse this achievement and even result in an estimated 200,000 new smokers taking up smoking.
“Congressman Quimbo’s suggested tax was way too low and is a guarantee that there will be 200,000 new smokers and tobacco victims in the country,” he said.
Rojas said higher taxes had proved to be effective in curbing smoking, specially as most of the tobacco consumers in the Philippines were poor.
“Tobacco tax is pro-poor as it protects people from acquiring preventable deaths and diseases caused by smoking,” Rojas said.
“If we prevent people from becoming ill or from premature death due to smoking, then we can channel the health budget to better use such as improving health support services, livelihood and other development projects.”