PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s ambitious “build, build, build” economic program needs tax reforms and better collection efforts by both the BIR and the Customs bureau. However, our lawmakers need to be careful.
The proposed tax reforms mean more take home pay with the lowering of personal income tax by increasing the exemption to P250,000. But the imposition of excise tax on fuel and sugary food products would hit the poor badly.
Expect, for instance, a rise in basic commodity prices with the increase in prices of sugared beverages like coffee and juices if taxes are added to sugar.
The Department of Finance need to reconsider its proposed tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. The proposal is positioned as a health measure against supposed unhealthy drinks. But if health is the motive, why not enact laws to cut costs of medicines and provide better health care?
A study by the University of Asia and the Pacific showed that the imposition of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages will result in a price increase of as much as 109 percent for affected products such as juice concentrates—staple commodities in a Filipino household.
According to the study, a pack of instant coffee will increase by almost 50 percent if the proposal is passed. Powdered concentrates are expected to increase by 108.61 percent. Instant coffee is consumed mostly by workers, and powdered concentrates, are used for “school baon” or snacks of the lower income sector.
Steven Cua, president of the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (Pagasa), said the proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would have a negative impact on the beverage industry and on the consumers of products considered as basic commodities such as coffee and juices.
To keep prices low, affordable and predictable, sugared beverage makers have turned to importing via the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, corn syrup to sweeten their products as an alternative, to the detriment of our own sugar industry.
It’s heartening to note, nevertheless, that Rep. Miro Quimbo and Sen. Sonny Angara are taking up the cudgels to scrap this proposal at the House and Senate.
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President Duterte should stop his aides from meddling in the Bureau of Customs (BOC). For instance, that poison letter against former district collector Koko Holganza claimed he was a financier of the Mar Roxas campaign. A poorly kept secret at the Port of Cebu during the 2016 presidential campaign was Koko’s all-out support for then mayor Duterte.
The political motive was revealed in the scriptwriter’s lame effort to link the Korean garbage issue to Mayor Tomas Osmeña. A crucial meeting supposedly happened during the opening of District 7 resto bar at the City Times Square.
I was there that night. The key persons named were not around. Besides, all were singing along with the blaring ‘80s music. Way makamiting sa kasaba.
Cebu port reporters easily saw through the poison letter. Thus, the operators needed somebody unfamiliar with the beat. Haha, nakuryente!