Filing of proposed sin tax reform moved to February

Dominguez, however, said that when the sin tax law was amended, taxes on alcoholic products were not fully reviewed, which were contrary to the original sin tax law. (Wikipedia Takes Manila participant) – Uploaded from Wikipedia Takes Manila, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA— Officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) have postponed the submission of the proposed Package 2 plus, or reforms in the sin tax law, from end-January to mid-February as they continue to fine-tune the planned tax measure.

“There will be a delay of about two weeks,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told reporters in a Viber message Tuesday.
Earlier, the finance chief said the planned reform of taxes on cigarettes and alcohol products, along with those of mining, coal and casinos aimed to correct the law, citing that for one, a comprehensive review of the Sin Tax law was needed.

In 2012, lawmakers approved the reform on the sin tax law, with excise tax on cigarettes alone hiked to PHP12 per pack effective 2013, PHP15 in 2014, PHP18 in 2015, PHP21 in 2016, and PHP30 in 2017.

By 2018, tax rates on cigarettes are mandated to increase by 4 percent every year through revenue regulations issued by the DOF Secretary.

Dominguez, however, said that when the sin tax law was amended, taxes on alcoholic products were not fully reviewed, which were contrary to the original sin tax law.
He also said that sin tax law reforms were part of the original Package 1 of the current administration’s tax reform program but was not included in the approved measure.

He also cited two bills pending at the Senate that aimed to increase excise taxes on cigarettes.

These are the bills filed by Senator Manny Pacquiao, who wants to increase the cigarette tax from PHP30 per pack to PHP60 per pack, and hike annual excise tax from 4 percent to 9 percent; and that of Senator  JV Ejercito, who wants to raise the tax to PHP90 per pack.