Fewer smokers, drinkers among Pinoys

There are now fewer smokers and drinkers among the 100 million Filipinos.

Either that or smokers are burning fewer sticks of cigarettes and drinkers are con- suming less alcohol.

Commissioner Kim Henares of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has made this assessment based on “remov- als” of tobacco and alcohol products like cigarettes and beer.

Removals represent withdrawals of products from the

manufacturing plants and warehouses of tobacco and liquor (including beer) companies.

Henares submitted her report to the congressional oversight committee on public spending chaired jointly by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who chairs the committee on appropriations of the House of Representatives, and his Senate counterpart, finance committee chairman Sen. Francis Escudero.

Ungab said the BIR report proves that the two chambers of Congress were correct in enacting the Sin Tax Reform Law, which substantially increased excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products.

“The increase was primarily intended to discourage Filipinos from smoking and drinking and at the same time to generate more revenues for the prevention and treatment of smoking and drinking-related ailments,” he said.

He said the law is proving to be a success “both as a health and a tax measure.”

In her report, Henares cited a recent survey showing Filipino smokers and drinkers decreased in number and were avoiding high-priced tobacco and alcohol products.

She said the higher tax and the reduced tax and price categories have made the cost of some products prohibitive for many smokers and drinkers.

In terms of removals, she said 5.7 million packs of cigarettes were withdrawn from plants and warehouses in 2012 and presumably sold.

The quantity went down by almost one million packs to 4.8 million in 2013, and by more than one million packs to 3.6 million in 2014, she said.

In the case of fermented liquor, principally beer, consumption fell from 1.572 billion liters in 2012 to 1.397 billion in 2013. However, it went up slightly to 1.410 billion liters in 2014.