SOME Cebuanos expressed resistance to the Department of Health’s proposed plan to impose additional sin tax on salty food in an attempt to make them less accessible to the public.
Ezekiel Ann Mulig, 21, said instead of the government interfering with what people choose to eat based on what they can afford, the government should focus more on more relevant issues.
“Any food is harmful if taken too much. There are people who eat junk food that are still healthy because they exercise and still eat healthy food. What a person eats is their own business. The government should focus more on the environment at the moment rather than what should people eat more or not,” she said.
This, after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in a radio interview, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019 said potato chips and other salty snacks are on top of their list of items that are proposed to be covered by sin tax.
“High in our list are potato chips, among others. They are really salty. We can probably start with them,” he said.
A sin tax is an excise tax levied on certain goods believed to be harmful to society.
High salt intake is directly linked to non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, end-stage renal failure, and cardiovascular illnesses.
Aside from junk food, tax may also be levied on dried fish or “buwad” in Cebuano.
The government, said 21-year-old Noeh Juarez, should prove first that increasing tax on selected products are effective in terms of regulating its consumption.
“For me, it’s not about the product’s price. It’s up to a consumer to either buy or not a product no matter how expensive it is. Take a look at cigarette. They increased the tax, but many still buy it,” he said in Cebuano.
As to Clarenz Jay Mendoza, he said “healthy food is undeniably costly.”
“Not everyone can afford. There are other measures to encourage low salt diet such as education or information dissemination,” he said.
In a separate interview, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella such move needs a “thorough study” since putting excise tax to these food such as “buwad” would only make it more expensive, making it hard for the public, especially the less privileged, to afford it.
“I think it is still a proposal. We have to study that because ‘buwad’ is the poor man’s viand,” he said.
Duque, however, clarified that the plan is still at a very early stage as the Health department still need to consult the Department of Finance and the Department of Trade and Industry. (WBS WITH REPORTS FROM JJL)