Share of excise taxes to total BIR collections down

MANILA, Philippines - The share of excise taxes to the total revenue collections of the government has been decreasing since 2002, the National Statistical Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said in a report.

Data culled by NSCB showed that the share of excise taxes shrank to 8.2 percent in 2010 from 14.4 percent in 2002.

In his report titled “What Is So Sinful About the Sin Tax?,” NSCB secretary general Jose Ramon Albert attributed the decline to the decreasing share of taxes from both alcohol and tobacco products.

He said that the share of tax collected from alcohol products decreased to 2.6 percent in 2010 from 3.3 percent in 2002.

Similarly, the share of tax collected from tobacco products to the total revenue collection slid to 3.9 percent in 2010 from 5.1 percent in 2002.

Aside from the decreasing share of taxes from sin taxes, Albert also noted in the report that the ratio of excise tax on goods collected in the country to gross domestic product (GDP) went down to just 0.7 percent in 2010 from 21 percent in 1998.

However, Albert said more than the monetary impact, cigarette and alcohol consumption has costs to people’s health.

“We must not forget that the cost of smoking and alcohol drinking is not solely monetary. There are also costs to the health that we should think about,” Albert said.

Citing data from the Department of Health, Albert said the top 10 leading causes of morbidity that may be considered to be related to tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking are Acute Respiratory Infection (1,129 per 100,000 population), bronchitis/bronchiolitis (232 per 100,000 population), Tuberculosis and respiratory problems (39.7/32.5 per 100,000 population), ranked 1, 6 and 10, respectively.

“The same causes are true for both men and women – except for kidney diseases which is also being included in the list for women (30.2 per 100,000 population),” Albert said.

The Aquino administration is pushing for a new sin tax reform measure that is seen to yield at least P40 billion in incremental revenues in the first year of implementation.

The House of Representatives’ version is expected to translate to P31.35 billion in additional collections while the Senate version would yield P40 billion.

Lawmakers have yet to reconcile both versions in the bicameral conference meetings before the end of the year.