7-MO CIGARETTE EXCISE COLLECTIONS HIT P 82.9B

With a higher tax rate and bigger demand when the economy gradually reopened from COVID-19 quarantine, the government’s revenues from cigarette excise taxes rose by nearly a third to P82.9 billion as of end-July, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Monday.

DOF Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa Habitan recently reported to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that the excise collected from cigarettes from January to July grew 31 percent from P63.3 billion during the first seven months of last year.

Per company, end-July collections from Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Co. (PMFTC) Inc. were the largest at P42 billion, up 6.9 percent from P39.3 billion a year ago.

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Philippines Inc. was in second place as it paid P38.8 billion in excise taxes, a 73.1-percent jump from a year ago’s P22.4 billion.

Two other cigarette manufacturers—Associated Anglo-American Tobacco Corp. and Kenstand Philippines Inc.—contributed the remaining P2.1-billion excise taxes generated during the first seven months.

The DOF data showed that

PMFTC had a 50.7-percent share of the domestic cigarette market, while JTI had 46.8 percent as of July.

“However, it should be noted that JTI’s share for this period increased by 11.4 percentage points when compared to last year. This was due to JTI’s increased volume of 55.8 percent year-on-year while PMFTC’s reported volume declined by 3.8 percent,” Habitan told Dominguez. Under Republic Act No. 11346, or the Tobacco Tax Law of 2019, cigarette excise rose to P50 per pack effective Jan. 1, 2021, from P45 a pack last year.