Transport group bucks SSB tax

A transport group calling itself National Land Transportation Council is opposing the planned tax on sugarsweetened beverages (SSB), including 3-in-1 coffee.

In a statement, the council said including instant coffee in the tax would be a heavy burden on transport drivers and Filipino families in general.

“3-in-1 coffee is part of our life. It gives us instant energy in the morning. It is also part of most Filipino families’ breakfast,” it said.

The group claimed that a 2016 research showed that poor households are heavy consumers of instant coffee.

“3-in-1 is the coffee of the poor. That’s what we can afford. We cannot understand why it is included in the proposed tax and expensive coffee is not. It’s not right,” the council said.

It pointed out that based on studies, if the planned levy were imposed, the price of a sachet of instant coffee would go up by P3, from P5 to P8.

The group urged congressmen and senators to delist 3-in-1 coffee from products covered by the tax or junk the levy altogether.

The SSB tax is part of the socalled tax reform package put together by the Department of Finance (DOF).

The House of Representatives has passed the proposed law containing such package. The measure is now with the Senate.

The biggest component of the reform measure is the planned P6 levy on diesel, kerosene, cooking gas, and bunker fuel for electricity generation.

Critics said this particular tax would result in higher cost of transportation, electricity, and products and services.

It would definitely make life harder for most Filipinos, they said.

The approval of the tax has the support of President Duterte. In fact, in his second State of the Nation Address last July 24, the President urged senators to approve the DOFproposed tax reforms “in full and with haste.”

The DOF wants the new and higher taxes to take effect in January.

But that is not likely to happen, since the Senate has scheduled the DOF-House bill for approval in the first quarter of next year yet.