House Ways and Means Chair and leading sin tax champion Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda thanked President Duterte for signing yesterday Republic No. 11467 or the sin tax reform on alcohol and e-cigarette products. Salceda, who was also among the earliest proponents of sin tax reform on tobacco products, said that the increase in excise taxes on alcohol and e-cigarettes would save thousands of lives due to healthier consumption of products, while saving hundreds of thousands more due to enhanced funding for universal health care.
“Once again, the President acted decisively for the public interest. Alcohol alone accounts for as many as 10,372 road crashes every year. Based on anecdotal evidence from the PGH, the number is probably bigger, as they claim that about 50 percent of all vehicular accident cases that they treat have some alcohol involved.” Salceda said.
“Alcoholism is linked with about 40 main diseases, including liver cirrhosis, cancer, pancreatic disease, hypertensive disease, tuberculosis, diabetes, and mental diseases. From t016 data of the World Health Organization some 4,431 per 100,000 population of Filipinos died from liver cirrhosis; 16,418 from hypertensive diseases; and 8,526 from tuberculosis – all linked to excessive use of alcohol. Surely, any move that reduces average national consumption is good news.” Salceda explained.
Last year, an article from The Economist ranked alcohol as the drug that causes the most overall harm. The article cited a 2010 study by British medical experts David J. Nutt, Leslie A. King, Lawrence D. Phillips which ranked intoxicating substances according to the harm the users cause on themselves and on others when they consume the drug. Because alcohol is linked with vehicular accidents, violence against women and children, and other acts of imprudence and violence, alcohol is considered among the most socially-harmful substances. Alcohol is also the leading killer of young people aged 19 to 24.
Preliminary estimates from the Department of Finance (DOF) indicate that alcohol may have an economic cost of as much as 1.7 percent of GDP every year, equivalent to about a third of the country’s annual health expenditure.
“My own estimates come somewhere closer to 2.0 percent of GDP, when you account for lost productivity on those who did not use alcohol, but were somehow harmed by someone who was under the influence of alcohol. If you could recover all of that, theoretically we could be growing by 8 to 9 percent every year, not to mention we would be healthier.”
Salceda also lauded the increase in excise taxes on e-cigarettes.
“Precautionary principle dictates that we should have taxed it higher and regulated it more closely the first time we taxed it because it was a new product with little clinical examination. As soon as I became Chair, I moved to correct the problem. I’m glad President Duterte fully agrees.” Salceda said.
The measure would raise a net of Php 17 billion to help close the gap for fully funding universal health care. Salceda has committed earlier last year to find funding sources to completely implement the program.
“At some point in the future, of course, we will have to review the alcohol taxes. I’m bullish about Philippine growth, and with growth comes purchasing power. With RA 11467, we have made alcohol less affordable, but we didn’t change in ASEAN in terms of ranking for how cheap alcohol is. And the more the average Filipino earns in the next few years, the more affordable alcohol will become. Natural naman sa policymaking ang openness to future evaluation,” Salceda remarked.
“For now, let’s celebrate this win for the people. Tomorrow, I will begin taking concrete steps to help make the implementation of UHC more effective and impactful.” Salceda concluded.
