Salt tax? Why not healthier food, says group

ILL-ADVISED? Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin calls the proposal to tax salty food ill-advised, considering the vital role played by “tuyo,” (dried salted sardine) “daing” (dried fish) and “bagoong” (shrimp paste) in Filipino diet. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Rather than consider imposing a tax on salty products, the civil society group Sin Tax Coalition said on Monday that the government should instead urge food manufacturers to ensure that they produce healthier goods.

The coalition’s Dr. Anthony Leachon said reformulating salty products was more ideal to levying a tax on such goods to help consumers avoid noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension.

“The essence of our advocacy is for manufacturing companies to reformulate their contents to be healthier, with less salt,” Leachon said in an interview.

He pointed out that it may be impractical to introduce a salt tax since this would make products currently available and accessible to the poor like instant noodles costlier.

Last week, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III raised the idea of introducing a tax on salty products. (See related story in Lifestyle, Page C1.)

United Nations report

He came up with the proposal after a United Nations (UN) report showed that NCDs were costing the country P756.5 billion annually in health care expenses and lost productivity.

Excessive salt consumption, physical inactivity, smoking and binge drinking were determined to be the main risk factors for NCDs like diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases.

These conditions account for 68 percent of all deaths in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a daily salt intake of about 5 grams.

But Filipinos’ salt intake is twice that level as they consume on the average about 11 grams daily, or roughly 2 teaspoons, according to the UN Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs (UNIATF).

This is why Duque said interventions on salty foods should be considered since the consumption level was “already proving to be of negative consequence and impacting on the health of our people.”

Gradual reformulation

The secretary agreed that apart from taxation, government should consider interventions such as urging food manufacturers to lower the salt content of their products or altogether do away with it, or to indicate the amount of salt on their product’s packaging.

UNIATF’s Alexey Kulikov said reformulation was one key strategy that was introduced in other countries.

“Many countries started reformulating bread recipes and they managed to cut down the levels of salt in bread by 50 percent,” Kulikov said.

“Do it gradually, otherwise the people will feel it immediately and the producers might lose customers. If it’s done gradually, it doesn’t damage the market share of these producers,” he added.

WHO country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe said it was important to introduce policies that would help regulate salt intake as this presented the “best return on investment (ROI).”

He noted that had the government allotted P5 billion over the next 15 years to roll out salt-reduction initiatives, the country’s economy would gain P163.1 billion due to increased productivity.

Ill-advised

Former Health Secretary Janette Garin called the proposal to tax salty food ill-advised, considering the vital role played by “tuyo,” (dried salted sardine) “daing” (dried fish) and “bagoong” (shrimp paste) in Filipino diet.

Garin, now an Iloilo congresswoman, said the Department of Health (DOH) should reexamine its proposal, noting how this would affect scores of Filipino households that subsist on meals consisting of rice and salty food.

“Salt, used moderately, aids our digestion and excretion. The unique identification of any Filipino household is marked with having a salt in our kitchen and eating tuyo, daing and bagoong to name a few,” she said.

Garin said the DOH proposal would also have negative effects on the livelihoods of fishermen and their families, consequently making salty food less affordable for every Juan and Maria.

Asin law

“If we are really concerned about addressing the excessive consumption of salt as a health issue, it is high time for us to revisit the implementation of Republic Act No. 8172, otherwise known as Asin Law,” said Garin, who headed the health department under the Benigno S. Aquino III administration.

The law was enacted to address the lack of micronutrients in the country, according to her.

“[After] more than 20 years of its passage, a probe is necessary to discuss solutions that are relevant not just to health, but also to the preservation of culture and means of livelihood for those families who depend on the local salt industry,” she said.

Last week, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said the DOH might ask Congress to pass a law imposing a tax on food with high salt content, noting that too much salt in one’s diet was “directly correlated to hypertension, heart disease and kidney diseases.”

The same rationale was used in the imposition of new excise taxes on sugary beverages, along with cigarettes and fuels, under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, whose implementation began in 2018.

In the 17th Congress, former Masbate Rep. Scott Davies Lanete proposed a P1 tax per milligram of salt in excess of one-third of the recommended daily intake in junk food, canned goods and other processed food.

The chair of the House ways and means panel, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, thumbed down the idea.

Salceda said a tax on salt would be inflationary and highly regressive.