PHL to lose ₧60B in ’23 from illicit cigarette trade
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HE country stands to lose at least P60 billion this year due to the proliferation of illicit cigarettes in the market that could reverse gains from the state’s sin taxes in curbing smoking, the head of the House Committee on Ways and Means said. Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda pointed out that the country’s problem with illicit cigarette trade is worsening with the advent of the internet, which made the sale of illegal products more accessible to everyone. “The elephant in the room is that we have a cigarette excise tax collection problem,” Salceda said in his speech in a forum organized by the Sin Tax Coalition on Tuesday in Manila.
Citing his team’s computations, Salceda said the state’s revenue losses this year due to illicit trade in cigarettes would amount to at least P60.6 billion with the total illicit cigarettes circulating in the market reaching about 2.02 billion sticks. The proliferation of illegal cigarettes would also drive the country’s health costs by about P29 billion since smoking prevalence would not be curtailed, Salceda added. “If this continues, [the health] cost [of smoking-related diseases] swells to P217 billion this year,” he said, noting that last year’s health costs were pegged at about P188 billion. Salceda emphasized that the
national government’s cigarette excise tax collections have been declining in recent years at an alarming rate. In 2021, he noted that collections were at 173.9 billion before declining to P160.4 billion in 2022. “ The 2022 decline was the largest ever since the 2012 Sin Tax Reform. The only other time revenues declined over the same period was in 2016, when revenues went down from P100.0 billion in 2015 to just P94.5 billion in 2016,” he said. “The decline in revenues in 2016 was a wake-up call for the government, which decided to strike heavily against Mighty Corporation, which eventually
settled for a P25-billion tax payment. That restored the uninterrupted upward trend in revenue collections, so much so that even in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, revenues still grew,” he added. Salceda said pieces of evidence point to a reduced cigarette consumption due to higher sin taxes. He noted that removals of cigarettes from factories declined from 4.3 billion sticks in 2019 to 3.3 billion sticks in 2020. However, citing the World Bank, Salceda pointed out that the decline in legitimate removals of cigarettes “should not have been that high.” See “Cigarette,” A2
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Wednesday, October 18, 2023 Vol. 19 No. 7
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SLASHING FIRB POWERS, BOOSTING IPA’S, EYED n
SBMA employees welcome tourists from the cruise ship Blue Dream Star, which started its series of port visits in Subic last Thursday. The Philippines on Monday was named Asia’s best cruise ship destination at special awards rites in Dubai, a timely recognition for hubs like Subic. SBMA PHOTO By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
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RESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. wants to reduce the powers of the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) and restore the mandate of the investment promotion agencies (IPAs) to grant incentives as part of the amendments to the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE), according to a senior lawmaker. See “FIRB,” A2
SUBIC AGOG OVER CRUISE SHIPS’ COMEBACK By Henry Empeño
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UBIC BAY FREEPORT— The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is looking forward to regular visits of the cruise ship Blue Dream Star, as the agency revved up its post-Covid 19 pandemic promotions to rev ita lize the loca l tour ism industry. The seven-decked, 24,318ton Liberian-f lagged cruise liner made its second voyage to Subic from Xiamen, China
on Monday, October 16, after becoming the first cruise sh ip to v isit t h is por t si nce t he Cov id pa ndem ic st a l led t he t h r i v i n g c r u i s e s h i p i ndu st r y he re. SBM A Tour ism Depar tment manager Jem Camba said Blue Dream Star, operated by Blue Dream Cruises China, has scheduled 11 port visits to Subic from October 12 to November 21, 2023. “ We a re h appy to we lcome Blue Dream Star to Subic Bay,” Camba said, as
the SBMA Cruise Ship Committee welcomed disembarking passengers at the Boton W harf here. “We expect around 1,000 passengers and more than 300 crew members in Subic Bay each time that Blue Dream Star arrives here every four days,” Camba added. Meanwhile, operators of local tourism establishments here expressed hope that this would spark another surge of See “Subic,” A2
In AI tools use, PHL must ensure fair access
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ANILA should come up with policies that ensure equitable access to technology and digital learning resources for all students in its bid to utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, according to an official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). See “AI,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.8360 n JAPAN 0.3801 n UK 69.4138 n HK 7.2705 n CHINA 7.7743 n SINGAPORE 41.5468 n AUSTRALIA 36.0170 n EU 60.0245 n KOREA 0.0422 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.1526 Source:
BSP (17 October 2023)