Some in the legislature have difficulty supporting the proposal to double the excise tax on sugar to P12 from the current P6, saying its anti-obesity objective is unclear and rather misleading.
At a recent forum on legislative reforms meant to benefit the domestic capital market, House ways and means committee chairman and Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda said the proposed sugar tax is one of a number of new measures designed to optimize revenue generation for the nation’s coffers and at the same time achieve health benefits for Filipinos.
But according to Salceda, the proposed legislation would make the Philippines the world’s most expensive regime for sugary product manufacturers as the government of Mexico, for instance, taxes sugary products in that country the equivalent of only P3.
Mexico, the 15th largest economy whose local output expansion last year was worth $1.4 trillion, brought down its obesity rate from 76 percent to 67 percent by keenly observing and appropriately taxing the dietary habits of its citizens, Salceda said.
In the Philippines, the incidence of obesity among Filipinos is only 22 percent but studies show this could be reduced to 17 percent partly through taxation, the legislator said.
According to Salceda, the proposed sugar tax would only succeed in making worse the terrible state of malnutrition among Filipinos recently based on estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF.
The UNICEF has estimated that 95 Filipino kids die everyday of malnutrition and that 27 out of 1,000 die of the same before reaching the age of five.
Under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act of TRAIN, a P6 tax per liter is imposed on drinks with caloric or non-caloric sweeteners and P12 per liter on beverages containing high-fructose corn syrup.
But under the proposed amendment to the TRAIN law, a P12 per liter tax is imposed regardless of the sweetener in use.
