The Manila City Regional Trial Court Branch 17 refused to restrain the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from enforcing the rules and regulations of Republic Act 10351, or the Sin Tax Law of 2012.
A group of manufacturers of alcoholic beverages has asked the courts to stop the Department of Finance and Bureau of Internal Revenue from implementing a new regulation that purportedly taxes both raw materials and the finished product, resulting in double taxation.
Smokers who patronize lower-priced cigarette brands will have to pay more to get their fix starting next week as the Bureau of Internal Revenue has issued new rules on the implementation of revised excise tax rates under the sin tax reform law.
The sin tax bill was finally approved Tuesday evening after senators concluded their deliberations and amendments on the measure. Certified as urgent by President Aquino, the bill was passed on second and third readings on the same day.
Senator Ralph Recto on Tuesday proposed that more than half of the P40 billion additional revenue that is expected to be collected from increased “sin” taxes should be released directly to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., or PhilHealth).
The proposed legislation seeking to impose higher excise taxes on liquor and tobacco products, more popularly known as the sin tax bill, is one of the most controversial pieces of legislation that ever crossed the halls of Congress.
Senate ways and means committee chair Franklin Drilon expects the chamber to approve the controversial sin tax bill on both second and third (final) readings Monday after President Aquino certified it as urgent before leaving for Cambodia.
A group of businessmen and professionals has warned that the government would lose, instead of generate more, revenues if it implements the proposal to slap much higher taxes on cigarettes. In the end, government might resort to increasing income taxes, the group warned.
State health agencies might not be able to immediately absorb the expected incremental revenues from the proposed sin tax reform bill, a Cabinet official said on Thursday.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares denied on Wednesday that they favored the House of Representatives’ version of the sin tax bill that imposed much less taxes on beer and alcohol, as alleged by Sen. Ralph Recto.
Soaring cigarette prices may also open a particularly nasty can of worms. The rules of economics remind us that prices for a certain item can be raised only up to a certain point, beyond which consumers will cease to purchase that item and turn to lower-priced alternatives.
A panel in the Senate has endorsed for plenary debates its own version of “sin tax” bill, which would cut by half the tax being imposed on imported “distilled spirits” but impose as high as 121 percent additional tax on low-priced cigarettes.
