Angara finds proposed excise tax on sweetened drinks too high

Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara. (File photo by ROMEO BUGANTE / Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

The Senate began to hear on Thursday the House bill imposing a P10 per liter excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.

But this early, Sen. Sonny Angara already found the proposed tax to be somewhat high.

Angara said the Senate ways and means committee, which he chairs, wanted the chamber to approve the bill imposing excise tax to dissuade consumption of the sugar-sweetened drinks.

“But we are looking at what [amount] is reasonable because it appears that the [House bill] increase would be 50 percent. We find that somewhat high,” he told reporters after the hearing.

He noted that in other countries, the excise tax amounted only to 10 percent and it was necessary to find out if this was effective.

The senator said the House proposal was to impose tax on volume or per liter of the beverage regardless of the sugar content.

But he said health experts had said that sugar content was important and this should be the basis for taxing.

“We are studying this,” Angara said, noting that the Department of Finance would be looking into taxing the sugar content of beverages.

Angara said the committee hoped to have a report on its proposed measure by September.

Asked whether the bill should be a health or revenue measure, he said that these could not be separated.

“Because at the end of the day, even if you say it’s a health measure, it’s still a burden for Juan de la Cruz so we have to be careful. Whether it’s a health or revenue measure, it needs to be reasonable,” Angara said.

He also said the committee would look into the proposal of Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri who suggested that a reasonable compromise for the sugar and beverage industries was a P5 excise tax.