By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
MANDALUYONG CITY — The Sin Tax Coalition (STC) on Thursday (Jan. 16) slammed the leadership of the 19th Congress for allegedly railroading a proposal to lower tobacco taxes by removing the 5% yearly tax rate increases to adjust for inflation and replacing it with a much weaker version.
“House Bill No. 11279, filed by Rep. Kristine Singson-Meehan, and co-authored by Rep. Tonypet Albano, Rep. Angelo Marcos Barba, Rep. Ron Salo, Rep. Solomon Chungalao, and Rep. Migs Nograles, is an insult to public health. The bill’s only beneficiary is the tobacco industry,” Dr. Antonio Dans, convenor of the STC, said.
House Bill No. 11279, which the STC terms as the “Sin Tax Sabotage Bill”, allegedly parrots the tobacco industry’s propaganda that high tobacco tax rates are responsible for rising illicit trade and declining tobacco tax revenues.
However, the STC noted that such arguments are purely based on speculation and driven by profit motives.
Illicit trade must be fought head-on through stringent enforcement of good rules by government
agencies, the STC noted, citing House Bill 11286 authored by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda as a bill addressing illicit tobacco trade.
The bill was approved in the House Committee on Ways and Means of the 19th Congress on Jan. 7, 2025.
“Rather than mitigating illicit trade, HB 11279 will deliver a dirty punch to both the government’s tax collections and to public health. It will lower tobacco tax revenues during a time of shrinking fiscal space. Lowering taxes will lower prices of cigarettes and vape products, making them more available to the youth and the poor,” Dr. Dans said.
He added that the STC estimates that the Singson-Meehan proposal of HB 11279 to lower tobacco taxes will lead to 400,000 more smokers by 2030, and P27.5 billion of revenue will be forgone.
The STC added that the administration has already destroyed the core of the Sin Tax Reform Law by diverting revenues specifically earmarked for PhilHealth and Universal Healthcare to other projects and allocating a zero subsidy for PhilHealth in 2025, and that instead of strengthening the public healthcare system that Filipinos rely heavily on, our government consistently weakens policies that have saved so many lives.
“We urge the remaining legislators in the House and in the Senate to protect the gains of sin taxes and reject HB 11279. We warn House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Senate President Chiz
Escudero, and all those who will support this deplorable bill: the Filipino voters will remember this irreversible betrayal,” Dr. Dans said.