3 solons warn against review of sin tax law

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Three lawmakers, including two party-list representatives, have warned against precipitate calls for a review of Republic Act No. 10351, otherwise known as the Sin Tax Reform Law, just over a year after its implementation in the guise of “plugging suspected revenue leaks and undervaluation” by certain cigarette manufacturers.

“This is an unwarranted indictment of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) coming as it does after these agencies reported record-breaking revenues generated from the reformed sin tax law, ” Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz said.

“No less than BIR Commissioner Kim Henares has publicly cited the law’s effectiveness just over a year after its full implementation noting that the agency reported record excise tax collections in the first three quarters of 2014 which she emphasized exceeded the full-year target in 2013,” De la Cruz noted.

‘Deficiencies’

Referring to the alleged findings of a Senate study which reported alleged ‘‘deficiencies” in the implementation of RA 10351, De la Cruz cautioned against the use of such raw, unvalidated data to advance scurrilous conclusions and pronouncements.

‘‘Instead of relying on unvalidated and extrapolated data from other parties, it is best that we strictly use only the data generated and reported by the revenue-generating agencies such as the BIR and BOC,” De la Cruz said.

‘‘Otherwise,” De la Cruz stressed, ‘‘we might as well close these agencies and outsource the generation of information to third parties specially if these data suit our own parochial interests.”

‘‘We should not let that happen,” he pointed out.

Commissioned

Another party-list solon also deplored a multinational cigarette corporation for continuously citing inaccurate and biased data culled from so-called ‘research’ from a firm by the name Oxford Advisers which the tobacco giant actually commissioned to support its misplaced call to review RA 10351 after only a year of implementation.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon scored Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) for its ‘‘bullying” tactics after the company twisted BIR and BOC reports on the implementation of RA 10351 to malign its local competitors.

‘‘This is not only an out and out smear campaign against local tobacco manufacturers but a downright affront on the government’s revenue generating agencies such as the BIR and BOC,” Ridon noted.

Saying this kind of business practice has no place in civilized societies, Ridon emphasized that this behavior is simply ‘‘irresponsible, inexcusable and unacceptable.”

Still another lawmaker, Rep. Elpidio Barzaga of Cavite, urged the PMFTC to fight its competitors ‘‘fair and square” instead of resorting to what he called dirty and underhanded tactics.

In a press statement, Barzaga said Philip Morris is big enough to fight its own battles and has vast resources at its disposal against its competitors. He chided PMFTC for calling for a review of the sin tax reform law because it lost part of its market share to Mighty Corp.

PMFTC cited a study conducted by the Senate Tax Study and Research Office (STSRO), which was presented at the recent hearing of the Congressional Oversight Committee on the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, which supposedly underlines alleged fraud committed by Mighty Corp.

But Barzaga quoted Henares as saying she considered the STSRO study “inaccurate, incomplete and not validated.”

She said the study was based on data collated from reports and studies commissioned by Philip Morris International, PMFTC’s parent company.

“All the data thus far on alleged illicit trade in the tobacco industry are those culled from studies and surveys commissioned by a foreign company that holds a grudge against a competitor. This can hardly be considered a basis for any kind of probe or review,” he added.