Lawmakers reject proposed ‘salt tax’
Credit to Author: GLEE JALEA| Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2019 16:19:35 +0000
LAWMAKERS in the Senate and the House of Representatives on Thursday opposed the recent proposal of the Department of Health (DoH) to impose tax on salty products, calling it “highly regressive” and “anti-poor.”
Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd on Tuesday expressed support for the proposed “asin (salt) tax” on junk food, noodles and even daing or salted dried fish since salty diets lead to hypertension that cost the government about P756 billion annually.
Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd, however, described as “silly” the proposed asin tax on daing, which he said is part of the poor’s diet.
“I think they are now going overboard. Bakit pati pagkain namin gustong pakialaman ng DoH (Why is it that the DoH wants to meddle with our food choice)?” he said in a text message.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel 3rd echoed Sotto’s remarks, saying such tax would be imposed on food items consumed by the “poorer sections of society.”
Senators Panfilo Lacson and Maria Josefa Imelda Marcos also rejected the Health department’s plan to impose a “sin tax” on daing, tuyo (dried fish), noodles and other “similar foods of the poor,” and urged the DoH not to push through with it.
In the House of Representatives, Albay Second District Rep. Jose Maria Salceda noted that the DoH should not “pass the ball” of health-related outcomes to tax policy, as it has not yet provided solutions to address the spread of non-communicable diseases in the country.
“While we take the cognizance of the DoH and WHO’s (World Health Organization) warnings of negative health impacts of high salt content of consumption patterns, we are also concerned that this will constitute a tax on the entire food item,” he said.
Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, stressed that the “highest level of care” must be taken when taxing items that are beneficial to the health such as salt and sugar.
Meanwhile, Bayan Muna noted that the proposal would only increase the prices of products mostly consumed by poor Filipinos.
“It is not the sin of the poor that they can only afford a poor people’s diet. It is their concrete present abject condition in our country that prevent them from getting healthy food,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate.
Data from the WHO showed that high salt intake is one of the causes of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory diseases, which account for 68 percent of all deaths in the Philippines.
With a reports from BERNNADETTE E. TAMAYO