PH sin tax campaign a global model, says WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has cited the Philippines’ efforts to impose higher taxes on alcohol and tobacco products as an international model of promoting health and reducing noncommunicable diseases.

In a report about the Philippines’ groundbreaking efforts to tax so-called sin products, the WHO said the Duterte administration’s method of preventing noncommunicable, or lifestyle, diseases was “relatively cheap and cost-effective.”

The campaign to collect more taxes from sin products identified “which policy packages provide the greatest return on investment,” WHO added.

The Philippine government move to reserve revenue from sin taxes for universal health care made the country “a forerunner,” the international health body said.

The WHO report came as the Departments of Finance and Health jointly pushed for the passage of Senate Bill No. 1074, which raises sin taxes on alcohol, heated tobacco and e-cigarettes.

“Most of these policy interventions are also WHO best buys,” the WHO report said./Edited by TSB