Approval of sin tax bill derailed

Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile

MANILA, Philippines—Deliberations on the sin tax reform bill stalled Tuesday evening after Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile pointed out that there was a “distortion” in the burden sharing of the revenues that would be collected from the sin taxes.

The sin tax bill seeks to obtain P40 billion from additional revenues that will be split 60-40, with P24 billion coming from cigarettes and P16 billion from liquor products.

Enrile, however, pointed out that there was a distortion in the sharing of the burden after several years with tobacco products getting a higher ratio of as much as 69 percent compared with liquor with 31 percent.

He said that they had previously agreed upon in a caucus that the burden would be shared 60-40, but after he computed the figures, he found there was a “definite bias” for the liquor industry and against the tobacco industry.

The plenary session was suspended in order to re-compute the figures.