‘Sin’ tax take hit record P141.8B in ’15

EXCISE taxes collected from so-called “sin” products jumped by a fourth to P141.8 billion in 2015, the highest take since the implementation of the Sin Tax Reform Law.

Bureau of Internal Revenue data released Tuesday showed that the excise tax collection from tobacco products, fermented liquors, distilled spirits/compounded liquors and wines rose from the P112.8 collected in 2014.

Actual collections also exceeded by 19.1 percent the P119.1-billion target for 2015.

In 2015, the take from cigarettes grew 32 percent to P100 billion from P75.5 billion in the previous year. The excise taxes collected from fermented liquors, meanwhile, increased by 14 percent to P28.3 billion from P24.7 billion in 2014.

As for distilled spirits and compounded liquors, collections reached P13.5 billion, up 7 percent from P12.5 billion a year ago. Excise taxes on wines climbed by 25 percent to P50 million in 2015 from P40 million in 2014.

Despite higher prices, withdrawals or the volumes of cigarettes and fermented liquors released from factories increased last year.

In 2015, 4.2 billion cigarette packs were withdrawn, up 9.1 percent from more than 3.9 billion packs during the previous year. As for fermented liquors, withdrawals inched up by 1.4 percent to 1.43 billion liters from 1.41 billion liters in 2014. Ben O. de Vera