Marcos urges Congress to impose excise tax on single-use plastics

MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to impose excise tax on single-use plastics – one of the tax reforms he urged Congress to support.

Marcos made the request during his second State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 24.

In 2022, the House of Representatives approved on third reading House Bill No. 4102 or the Single-Use Plastic Bags Tax Act.

Under the bill, an excise tax of P100 would be imposed on every kilogram of single-use plastic removed from production or released from the custody of the Bureau of Customs.

Meanwhile in the Senate, Senator Raffy Tulfo authored a counterpart bill that seeks to impose an excise tax of P20.

Other tax measures Marcos wants Congress to pass to fulfill the government’s Medium-Term Fiscal Framework are VAT on digital services, rationalization of fiscal regime, road user’s tax, and military and uniformed personnel pension.

PH’s plastic problem

The Philippines is inundated with a growing plastic crisis, generating 2.7 million tons of plastic waste per year. Around 0.28 to 0.75 million tonnes of this waste enter the oceans.

Environmental advocates propose establishing a circular economy to combat problems in plastic pollution and waste disposal.

A circular economy is a system where companies not only concern themselves with production but also with the disposal and recycling of their products and materials.

During his second SONA, Marcos emphasized this solution.

“We have adopted the concept of the ‘circular economy,’ using nature as our model. The aim is to keep raw materials in a closed loop,” said Marcos.

“In our world with scarce resources, the circular economy allows us to fully use these resources, minimize waste, and reduce the need for new resources – just as it is in nature.”

Aside from efforts to legislate tax measures that will curb single-use plastics, the government is currently undertaking efforts to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility law. The law requires companies to take responsibility of the plastic packaging waste they produce.