Skip to content
The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

Title

Name

Primary Menu
  • Home
  • Mindanao
  • Visayas
  • National
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • International
  • SciTech
  • Health & Wellness
  • Sports
  • About Us
    • Regional Advertising Rates
    • Contact Us
    • Profile
  • Home
  • Business
  • Raise tobacco tax even higher, DOF urges Congress
  • Business
  • Featured
  • Mindanao Post

Raise tobacco tax even higher, DOF urges Congress

Chief Editor December 7, 2018
THE DEPARTMENT of Finance (DOF) said it will strongly convince Congress to impose new “sin” tax rates on tobacco products that will make cigarettes pricey enough to further discourage smoking, especially among teenagers.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that increasing the current tobacco excise tax rates to levels that would effectively curb smoking, particularly among the youth, would also help supplement funds for the Universal Health Care program, especially for the treatment of smoking-related diseases.
“There’s still the Senate. We will try our best. This thing doesn’t end until the President signs it. We’re there, we’re keeping at it. We hope that they will come up to what is good for the country,” he said.
Dominguez’s statement was in reaction to the approval by the House Committee on Ways and Means on November 27 of a consolidated bill that increased tobacco excise tax rates to levels that did not go far enough to what the Department of Health and anti-tobacco and health advocates have recommended.
The House-approved bill aims to raise the current tax of P35 per pack of cigarettes to P37.50 beginning July 2019. The bill also calls for another increase to P40 in July 2020, P42.50 in July 2021, and P45 in July 2022. Thereafter, the rate shall be raised four percent every July annually.
The DOF proposal supports the position of Rep. Angelina Tan to raise the tobacco excise tax to P60 per pack in 2019 and increasing it by nine percent annually thereafter. “The society has to agree what is more important: enough money for healthcare or favoring companies that produce products that damage health? That’s what society has to agree on, and that’s what the representatives in the legislature are supposed to reflect,” Dominguez said.
Citing the testimonies of resource persons heard by the House ways and means committee during its deliberations on the proposed new tobacco tax rates, Dominguez said the higher excise taxes on cigarettes under the Sin Tax Reform Law have led to a drop in the number of smokers by roughly a million people per year, with fewer teenagers getting into the habit, and a corresponding increase in revenues that are spent on treating Filipinos with smoking-related diseases.
“Our revenues have to keep on going up because we are supporting a lot of people who are getting sick from smoking. That was all the testimony. I was reading the summary of the testimonies, it’s overwhelmingly in favor of higher taxes for health reasons,” Dominguez said.
A recent news release by the House of Representatives posted on its website quoted Dr. Antonio Dans of the National Academy of Science and Technology as saying that preliminary calculations project about 150,000 new smokers as a result of the rates approved by the House ways and means committee. (Mindanao Examiner)

Like Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindanaoexaminer
Follow Us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MindanaoExamine
Read And Share Our News: https://www.mindanaoexaminer.com 
Mirror Site:  https://mindanaoexaminernewspaper.blogspot.com
Digital Archives: https://issuu.com/mindanaoexaminernewspaper
See Media Rates: https://mindanaoexaminer.com/ad-rates
fb-share-icon
Tweet 20

Continue Reading

Previous: DepEd denies ordering closure of any Lumad school
Next: Sandiganbayan junks Misuari’s plea to dismiss ‘ghost textbook’ case

Related News

JBL
  • Business
  • Technology

JBL Unleashes Next-Level Audio in Davao

Editor June 6, 2025
Mango1
  • Business
  • National

PH mangoes land in Rome in bid to win over Italian market

Editor June 3, 2025
NMin-Literacy
  • Mindanao Post

Northern Mindanao’s basic literacy rate hits 90.8% in 2024, above national average

Editor June 2, 2025

Trending News

JBL Unleashes Next-Level Audio in Davao JBL 1
  • Business
  • Technology

JBL Unleashes Next-Level Audio in Davao

June 6, 2025
PH mangoes land in Rome in bid to win over Italian market Mango1 2
  • Business
  • National

PH mangoes land in Rome in bid to win over Italian market

June 3, 2025
DOTr orders closure, raps vs. AirAsia Move over excessive air fares AirAsia-MOVE-app 3
  • National

DOTr orders closure, raps vs. AirAsia Move over excessive air fares

June 2, 2025
DOT assures Korean community of strengthened tourist safety measures Seo-In-Guk-&-Christina-Frasco 4
  • National
  • Tourism

DOT assures Korean community of strengthened tourist safety measures

June 2, 2025
SSS welcomes UnionDigital Bank President and CEO – talks about partnership opportunities for micro lending, for overseas Filipinos, and for transfer of technology uniondigital-bank 5
  • National

SSS welcomes UnionDigital Bank President and CEO – talks about partnership opportunities for micro lending, for overseas Filipinos, and for transfer of technology

June 2, 2025
  • Facebook
  • X
  • YouTube
  • Blog
Copyright © 2025. The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper. All Rights Reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.