Department of Finance spokesperson Paola Alvarez in a report told inquirer that “The idea is to have all the existing bills that want to tax high sugar and unhealthy products like junk food and soft drinks included in the package."
The new administration of Duterte wants to have a tax policy reform programs which proposed to impose tax on fatty food tax, a carbon tax, a casino and lottery tax, mining taxes as well as a luxury tax on cars, jewelry and yachts.
The “sin” tax on tobacco and alcohol products, packaged as a health measure will be doing scheduled review this year since the implementation of it on 2013.
According to the estimations made by the DOF the consumption tax package will generate P109.4 billion in revenues while the mining tax will generate P3.5 billion by 2019; luxury tax, P7.7 billion; “sin” tax, P38.2 billion, and P20 billion each from fatty food tax, carbon tax, and lottery and casino tax.
Also to demand P5-a-kilo excise tax on sugary products, including domestic raw sugar, refined sugar as well as imported sugar and sugar substitutes, which will result in fresh revenues worth P18.1 billion.
Head of research of ATR Asset Management Jose Mari Lacson, said, “There are growing concerns over the short- to medium-term outlook for earnings in URC because of the planned tax on sugary beverages, impact of the Snackbrands (a leading snack food manufacturer in Australia) acquisition and surprise weakness in Vietnam beverage sales in the second quarter 2016."
“In the near-term, investors will still have to reassess these developments in terms of their valuation of the company," Lacson added.
The International Council of Beverage Associations (ICBA) has commented on the proposed tax on sugary products in the countries like India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Britain that, “While we understand that there are discussions occurring in those countries, the bottom line is that taxes do not improve public health in any country.”
Source: Inquirer