Phillipines: Higher Excise Tax To Affect Tobacco farmers – Marcos

Source from:  Manila Bulletin‎  11/16/2012

Don't kill the goose that lay the golden eggs.
 
This was the plea of Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on the Malacañang-favored "sin" tax bill that seeks to impose high excise tax rates on the tobacco industry.
 
Tobacco is produced in Northern Luzon where Marcos and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile come from.
 
Enrile had vowed to protect the Ilocano tobacco farmers as his blood roots are in the Ilocano-speaking areas of Northern Luzon. He claimed that the "sin" tax bill appears to favor foreign brands of cigarettes.
 
The Marcos plea was made during his interpellation Wednesday night of Senator Franklin M. Drilon, acting chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, who is pushing for a Senate approval of the increased tax on sin products – cigarettes and alcohol- that estimated to bring in P40 billion to P45 billion in government revenues.
 
The tobacco farmers who produce are expected to be adversely affected by the imposition of higher excise tax on cigarettes should be extended help, Marcos said.
 
A tobacco farmer in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur has an average tobacco farm of about .7-hectare, a little higher in La Union and other provinces such Pangasinan  and those in the Cagayan valley.
 
There are about 18,000 farmers engaged in tobacco farming.
 
While the Drilon substitute bill seeks to collect some P26 billion from the cigarette industry, Marcos felt that the actual figure might be P20 billion.
 
Marcos also questioned the assumptions of the Drillon measure which was substituted in place of the measure sponsored by Sen. Ralph G. Recto.
 
Recto recently resigned as Senate ways and means committee chairman after Malacanang and the Department of Finance (DOF) derided his committee report that sought a P15 billion to P20 billion revenue take from the tobacco and alcohol industries, well below the DoF-favored bill.
 
Marcos said that the Drilon measure would trigger smuggling of cigarettes, would not get the desired revenue collection estimate of P26.8 billion and would not reduce the number of smokers.
 
The son of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos said he would introduce amendments to the Drilon bill when the Senate resumes regular session on Monday in a bid to have senators take a vote Monday night.
 
Also as chairman of the Senate finance committee, Drilon is scheduled to submit for plenary debate the proposed 2013 P2 trillion national budget.
 
These two urgent measures are targeted for approval before Congress goes into a four-week Christmas break starting December 22. Enditem