on Mon, 05/29/2017

Local legislators in both Negros Occidental and its capital Bacolod City passed resolutions last week expressing opposition to the proposed excise tax on beverages, sweetened by using locally-produced sugar.

On Wednesday, the SP of Negros Occidental unanimously approved a resolution urging lawmakers to reduce the proposed excise tax on sugar sweetened beverages from P10 to P5 per liter, in support of the stand of the Visayan-bloc House representatives.

Board Member Alain Gatuslao (5th district), chairman of the committee on laws and ordinances, said the resolution also urged other local government units in Negros Occidental and in the Visayas region to support the reduction of the tax.

Gatuslao pointed out that while the government may earn P22 billion for excise tax, it will have a great impact to the economy and livelihood of sugar-producing provinces, majority of residents of which rely much on sugar.

On the same day, the Bacolod City Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) also passed a resolution opposing their opposition to the proposed excise tax on sugar and the expansion of the value-added tax (VAT), a part of the comprehensive tax reform package (CTRP) submitted by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Bacolod Councilor Caesar Distrito said the CTRP aims to increase taxes on basic commodities, as well as individual income.

Among the commodities included in CTRP is fuel, wherein diesel will see an initial P3 tax per liter, which will later increase to P5 by 2019, and eventually hit P6 by 2020, he said adding that kerosene and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) will also be included in the tax, at P6 per liter.

Distrito said the CTRP also covers the imposition of a P10 per liter excise tax on sugar sweetened beverages (SSB).

“The imposition of these taxes will surely affect the daily consumption of our citizens,” Distrito warned. “With higher fuel prices, the prices of basic commodities will also increase.”

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. is also pushing for lower excise tax on sugar, and that the P5 levy on sugar – being proposed by Rep. Alfredo Benitez (3rd district, Negros Occ)–”should be lowered further to P2.50 or P2.”

The Sugar Alliance of the Philippines (SAP) also called on Congress for at least five to six years exemption on excise tax, which will only bring the sugar industry down.

Lawyer Dino Yulo, spokesman of SAP, said the sugar industry is just starting its modernization to be more productive and globally competitive, under the P2-billion Sugar Industry Development Fund (SIDF).

“Having this excise tax implemented on us now will just defeat the very purpose of the fund coming from government,” Yulo said.

Earlier, Benitez said that there was a proposal that 15 percent of the proceeds from excise tax be allocated to the sugar industry, on top of the P2 billion annually from the SIDF.

Abang-Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, on the otherhand proposed that the 15 percent share in the projected P3.5-billion incremental revenue– from the P10 per liter excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages–be given directly to the sugar milling districts through the Sugar Regulatory Administration.*