Do not mislead public on sin tax – Cayetano
Credit to Author: JAVIER J. ISMAEL| Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:18:43 +0000
SEN. Pilar Juliana “Pia” Cayetano appealed to alcohol industry leaders not to mislead the public into thinking that raising “sin” taxes on alcoholic beverages is detrimental to Filipinos, particularly the poor.
“When we’re talking about [taxing] sin products, please do not scare the people into thinking that what [the government is] trying to do is harmful to the Filipino people,” Cayetano said in a Senate committee hearing on Thursday.
The hearing, headed by Cayetano, who also heads the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, tackled Senate Bill 383 and House Bill 1026 seeking to increase the excise tax rates on alcoholic products and electronic cigarettes.
Industry leaders were given the opportunity to present their position during the hearing. Distilled Spirits Association of the Philippines President Olivia Limpe-aw argued that hiking taxes on their products would “deprive the poor of their little happiness.”
Cayetano, in response, stressed that the poor deserves a “better kind of happiness” — one that will not cost them their health and well-being. She also warned industry players on misinforming the public that sin taxes would lead to job losses.
The senator stressed that the country’s alcohol problem had caused more damage to many Filipino families in terms of diseases, accidents, domestic abuse and crimes, which should be addressed through a variety of interventions, including taxation.
“If you’re going to say that there’s X amount of people to lose jobs, then I am going to dig up all the figures to show how many families are affected by the same sin products — how many deaths, how many battered women, how many neglected children,” she emphasized.
Cayetano also appealed to members of media, saying, “Ang pakiusap ko sa inyo (My request), don’t use these [one-sided] stories without also including stories about the deaths [caused by alcohol consumption], the children who are violated and the women who are left homeless, or [those] who have to give up food on the table [in favor of spending money on alcohol].”