HEALTH benefits and the government’s revenue generation should be the main considerations of the sin tax law, Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.
He said the Sin Tax Reform Act, which provides for a shift to a unitary instead of a two-tiered tax system for tobacco products, should be allowed to take its course.
“Whatever will benefit the health sector as well as the government’s revenue generation, I would support,” Lacson said.
“Initially, I’d rather allow the present law to take its course; that is, to allow the automatic shift to [a unitary tax system], monitor and review the implications before taking any legislative intervention, but most importantly prevent leakages in the sin tax collections.”
Lacson made his statement even as Rep. Joselito Atienza on Sunday blamed the past Congress for failing to protect local tobacco industry and called on the Senate to quickly pass the proposed law amending the Sin Tax Reform Act.
Atienza said several laws had been passed that only served the interests of the makers of imported cigarettes.
He said the Philippines’ tobacco farmers were on the brink of extinction.
“I hope that our good senators will also do their part to protect the tobacco farmers from unfair business practices,” Atienza said.
Lacson said the unitary tax system was so far proving to be responsive to increasing revenue, reducing the consumption of cigarettes and making tax administration simpler to combat tax evasion.
He said the Sin Tax Reform Act, which went into effect in 2012, had been meeting its goals of bringing down cigarette and alcohol consumption, and raising revenues to finance the implementation of Universal Health Care programs and alternative livelihood for tobacco farmers.
He cited figures from the National Nutrition Survey showing that, as of 2016, the prevalence of smoking prevalence among Filipinos had declined to 23 percent in 2015 from 31 percent in 2008.
He said the law had also increased the national budget for health, which rose from P57 billion before its passage in 2012 to P123 billion in 2016.
