By Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA
MANILA — A health advocacy group is pushing for the passage of the tobacco tax bill that would increase the excise tax on tobacco to PHP60 from the current PHP32.50 per pack.
“We welcome the recent decision of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to certify the tobacco tax bills pending in the Senate as urgent. The challenge now is for our legislators, particularly the Senate, to take action on the issue,” Health Justice project manager Ralph Degollacion told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview on Friday.
Health Justice PH is an advocacy group with legal expertise in tobacco control and public health promotion.
While Duterte’s approval boosts the campaign against addiction to tobacco products, Degollacion said the bill won’t be able to serve its life-saving purpose if not passed by the Senate.
“Senators must keep in mind that it will help prevent 100,000 tobacco-related deaths annually, and fund the Universal Health Care aspiration of our country,” he added.
According to the 2015 Global Youth Tobacco Survey of the Department of Health and World Health Organization, teen smoking rate increased from 13 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015.
“This shows that tobacco products remain affordable in the country. By increasing taxes on tobacco products, you can discourage price-sensitive consumers such as the youth, and it has been proven in many economic studies,” Degollacion said.
He added that the PHP60 per pack tax can raise an additional PHP40 billion fund for the Universal Health Care (UHC) in its first year, and save one million Filipinos by 2022 from becoming sick due to tobacco-related diseases based on their computations.
“There’s also the Ejercito bill, PHP90 per pack, which will raise an additional PHP60 billion and save two million Filipinos. I think, we must support the tax rate that will not only raise more funds for UHC and save more lives. But the real challenge is the Senate, particularly the Committee on Ways and Means, to pass the bill,” he said.
Citing the latest opinion survey by Pulse Asia, where six out of 10 Filipinos support increasing tobacco taxes, Degollacion told PNA that senators do not have an excuse not to tackle the measure after the May 2019 elections.
“They need to act now because we don’t want to see more of our fellow Filipino’s becoming addicted and eventually die due to tobacco-related diseases,” he added.
On January 7, the President certified as urgent the measure meant to raise excise taxes on tobacco products to fund the government’s UHC program.
