DESPITE the passing of a bill that seeks higher excise taxes on tobacco products, some Dabawenyo sari-sari store owners said they will continue selling as customers’ demand remain high for cigarettes.
A store owner for 10 years in Barangay Tibungco, Davao City, Neneng Aparece, told SunStar Davao Wednesday, June 5, that among her best-selling products is the cigarette.
“Mupalit og mubaligya lang gihapon ko og sigarilyo kay daghan man og mangita. Ana pa sila, bisag unsa pa na kamahal, mupalit gyud sila og muundang lang sila og wa nay mamaligya gyud. (I will still buy and sell cigarettes since many are looking for it. Customers told me that they will still buy regardless of price and they will just stop when no one is selling anymore),” she said.
Another store owner in Barangay Isla Verde, Elsa Lofranco, 79, said she will not stop selling something that most customers are buying like cigarettes even if the government will approve its sin tax bill causing a higher price.
On Monday, June 3, the senate approved on third and final reading Senate Bill 2233, bill that seeks to increase excise taxes on tobacco products to P60 by 2023. The measure was deemed urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The proposed increase tobacco excise tax is P45 per pack in January 2020 from P37.50 currently; to P50 in January 2021; to P55 in January 2022 and to P60 in January 2023 and then by five percent every year thereafter.
Meanwhile, 51-year-old store owner Alma Salazar in Tibungco expressed her doubts in continually selling cigarettes if prices would be as high as P45 in 2020.
“Sa karon, daghan gihapon og nagapamalit bisag mahal ang sigarilyo kay bisyo mana nila. Pero kung muabot na og mahal na gyud kaayo, basin di nako mangompra ana kay basin malugi palang ko (For now, customers are still buying cigarettes even if it is costly. But if it will become more expensive, I might not buy it anymore because I might lose money from it),” she said.
Some smokers, however, said that if it will be fully implemented, they will have to limit consumption.
“I will not buy pack anymore. One stick a day will do if it gets too expensive,” Davao film production assistant Ryle Bryan Equia said.
“I will still buy but will have to limit it to five sticks a day and maybe it is time to start trying to quit,” marketing assistant Paul Eumer Bioco said.
Committee on Health chair Councilor Mary Joselle Villafuerte said the passage of the proposed law will benefit the Filipinos especially as additional fund for the implementation of the Universal Healthcare Act.