Cheap cigarettes turn into tax battlefield

LOW-PRICED tobacco products have become a battleground pitting farmers against uncaring hordes keen on raising excise taxes whatever it takes.

With the proverbial begging bowl in hand, PhilTobacco Growers Association (PTGA) plead to members of the Senate and the House of Representatives set to begin their bicameral conference meetings next week, begging for a gradual, moderate tax increases, especially for the lowpriced brands.

The group reiterated that small manufacturers produce low- to midpriced brands, which account for about 65 percent of the local cigarette market. Farmers depend largely on the production of these low- and mid-priced brands to be able to sell their produce at competitive prices,

Saturnino Distor of the PTGA insisted that the excise tax law should protect local cigarettes over imported brands and not the other way around.

“Why do we need to sacrifice the welfare of small farmers and small manufacturers so that we can favor importers? Whose side are our lawmakers on—their fellow Filipinos or the foreigners” the group said in a statement.

The farmer leader also advised lawmakers to mind the words of the late President Ramon Magsaysay who fought always for the interests of the masses who said that—“those who have less in life, should have more in law.”

The final version of Senate Bill 3299, which House leaders said they are inclined to support insofar as the tax on cigarettes are concerned, proposes a three-tier tax scheme for tobacco products and a unitary tax of P26 that would be implemented by 2017.

This means the tax on low-priced cigarettes would not just be doubled, but would increase 341 percent on the first year alone which PTGA believes would kill the small manufacturers and tobacco farmers.