Cutting down the sin tax

It’s a dramatic display of how politics and economics meet and merge.  Anti-tobacco advocates call the watered down Senate sin tax downgrade the “Ralph Morris” bill – Ralph Recto plus Philip Morris.  The much diluted sin tax bill of a Senate panel led by Ralph Rcto was released on October 10 and will raise only P15 billion instead of the original P60 billion. Observers say it resembles an earlier proposal of the country’s biggest tobacco player, multinational Philip Morris, which is now the business partner of Fortune Tobacco, once a monopoly controlled by the Philippines’ second richest, Lucio Tan.  The bill that will raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol is the only revenue measure the Aquino government prioritized in the 15th Congress and is meant to fund universal healthcare and tobacco farmers’ needs.


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