Senators urged to pass Santiago version of sin tax bill

MANILA, Philippines - Civil society group yesterday urged lawmakers not to pass Senator Ralph Recto’s version of the sin tax bill and instead adopt the proposal filed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

In a media forum in Quezon City yesterday, representatives from different sectors showed their support for the passage of the Santiago version, saying that it has the best features among those that were filed in the Senate.

Among the salient features of Senate bill 3249 include the removal of the price classification freeze as well as the high increase in the tax rates of cigarettes, said Emer Rojas of the New Voice Association of the Philippines.

He added that Santiago’s version provides for a unitary tax rate and a review of the tax rates every five years.

According to Rojas, Santiago’s proposal will generate an additional P60 billion in tax collection ‘s significantly higher than the P15 to P20 billion projected tax collection of the version proposed by Ways and Means Committee that was then headed by Recto.

Rojas said that the additional revenues will be beneficial since it would be used to fund the Universal Healthcare Program as well as different projects that aim to help tobacco farmers that will be affected by the passage of the bill.

Alex Asuncion of the Philippine Cancer Society asked senators not to pass the watered-down version of the sin tax bill.

“We have to pass the version that imposes the highest tax on sin products so as to prevent the children and the poor from buying them,” he said.