THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said the incoming administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has the option to include electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) and vaporizers (vapes) in the coverage of the Sin Tax Reform Law or Republic Act No. 10351.
According to outgoing health chief Janette Garin, the emerging popularity of e-cigarettes and vapes as alternative to cigarette products--despite being unproven--can easily be checked by including them in the products covered by the Sin Tax Law.
“It can be an amendment to the Sin Tax law, especially so if the effects on health is the same,” said Garin in an interview.
Garin said it is also possible for the government to simply review the Sin Tax Law’s Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) to know if it will not necessitate an amendment of the law anymore.
“It is what happens usually if you have a particular law, there will always be a way to go around it. But then, it’s not the end of the world. We can easily review the law and slap taxes to these products,” said Garin.
To recall, the Sin Tax Reform Law or Republic Act No. 10351 was enacted with an aim to increase taxes on all tobacco and alcohol products in a bid to make them less affordable to the public.
The call was issued amid the continued rise in the number of people using e-cigarettes with the belief that it is a better and safer alternative to traditional cigarettes.
Subsequently, it resulted to the establishment of vape bars in several commercial establishments frequented by those using vapes and e-cigs.
And according to the World Health Organization (WHO), using e-cigs and vapes won’t result to having lower prevalence of cigarette smoking.
“We don’t expect that there is any positive effect of the introduction of e-cigarettes to decreasing the smoking prevalence,” said WHO Representative to the Philippines Gundo Weiler.
“It’s not going to be the solution or an alternative to tobacco prevention,” he added.
He said they came up with such a conclusion since nicotine is known to be a highly addictive drug present in cigarettes as well as in e-cigarettes and vapes.
“The e-cigarettes will also be actually enticing people to start consuming nicotine. It’s not, at this point, to say that the electronic cigarettes per se can lead to reducing the tobacco consumption,” explained Weiler. (HDT/Sunnex)