Phillipines: TESDA Readies Courses to Help Tobacco Farmers
Source from: Philippine Star 12/24/2012
The state-run Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has prepared courses that would help tobacco farmers to be affected by the new sin tax law.
TESDA director general Joel Villanueva said in a statement that the agency has training and retooling programs for tobacco farmers who are set to lose their jobs due to the expected decline in cigarette consumption because of higher prices.
"Fears have been raised that tobacco farmers would lose their jobs because of the expected decline in local consumption in the next few years due to increased cigarette cost," he warned.
He pointed out that TESDA has qualifications or courses in place that are relevant to farm workers to help them develop and specialize in new skills to get their foot in the door for new jobs or livelihood opportunities.
Villanueva said qualifications related to agriculture, horticulture, agri-fisheries, food manufacturing, among others are available to help tobacco farm workers shift gears without necessarily displacing them from the work they have known for many years.
"The trainings will arm them with invaluable knowledge and hands-on experience to get by and adapt to the changes brought about by the new law," the TESDA chief said.
Hoping to minimize its impact on the farmers and farm workers, Sec. 9 or the transitory provision of the law institutionalized a mechanism of support for tobacco farmers through training and retooling programs to be funded from 2014 to 2017.
President Aquino on Thursday signed the sin tax bill into law that is seen boosting government coffers with additional P30 billion in revenues.
In his speech, Aquino assured tobacco farmers they would share in the gains coming from the passage of the bill. Tobacco farmers and vendors had opposed the bill, saying it would kill their industry and cost them their source of income.
The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicam report on the measure, which imposes higher taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
The passage of the sin tax bill is a measure that is expected to boost the Philippines' chances of getting an investment grade next year as it would improve tax collections.
The government, through the Department of Finance (DOF), got some of the reforms it was pushing for as the bicameral's version which would yield P34 billion in incremental revenues in the first year of implementation is near the P40 billion the government had targeted from sin tax revenues.
The bicameral committee version agreed to the shift of the sin tax system to a unitary rate, the automatic indexation to inflation and it also complied with agreements under the World Trade Organization that would effectively discourage uncompetitive behavior.
A Senate-House conference committee finalized on Monday the higher rates of taxes on alcohol and tobacco products and the revenue target from sin tax bill.
Sen. Franklin Drilon, who led the Senate conference as acting ways and means committee chairman, said the measure aims to generate an additional P248.5 billion over five years up to 2017, with tobacco bearing the bigger tax burden. Enditem
