Salient points, according to Malacañang, of the sin tax law (RA 10351):
- Reduction of tobacco and alcohol consumption leads to better health outcomes.
- Funding of universal healthcare is assured of 80 percent of the incremental revenue that will be allocated for the universal healthcare. Twenty percent will be for medical assistance and health enhancement facilities.
- Additional funding for tobacco farmer’s livelihood support on top of subsidy provided by RA 7171 and RA 8240.
- Removal of the price/brand classification freeze, with the proper tax classification of alcohol and tobacco products to be determined every two years.
- Gradual shift to a unitary taxation to simplify the current multitiered structure of taxes, to prevent the excise taxes from being eroded by inflation and to discourage consumption of sin products.
- Annual indexation of excise taxes by 4 percent effective 2016 for distilled spirits and 2018 for cigarettes and beer.
- World Trade Organization compliant on distilled spirits.
- Adherence to World Health Organization-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The excise tax incidence for cigarettes, which is a ratio of excise tax to price, will increase from the current 29.1 percent to 52.5 percent in 2013 and to 63 percent by 2017.
- Generation of more revenue for the government. In the first year of implementation, the government is expected to raise P33.96 billion in additional revenue, of which P23.4 billion is from cigarettes, P6.06 billion from distilled spirits and P4.5 billion from fermented liquors.
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