THE Department of Finance

THE Department of Finance (DoF) said higher excise tax on sugar sweetened liquids can generate an extra P47 billion in sales inside the first 12 months of implementation.

The DoF issued the statement at some point of a House Committee on Appropriations hearing on Wednesday. The panel is engaging in hearings on a alternative bill that consolidated House Bill (HB) 4774 and different similar payments.

HB 4774 consists of Package One of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) that aims to lower private earnings tax rates, adjust excise taxes on oil and automobiles and develop the fee-added tax (VAT) base even as keeping exemptions for senior residents and people with disabilities. In the same hearing, the House Committee on Ways and Means additionally accredited amendments to the factitious invoice inclusive of a P10 consistent with liter additional excise tax on sugar sweetened liquids, a measure at the beginning proposed underneath Package 3 of the CTRP.

Sugar sweetened liquids are non-alcoholic and comprise caloric sweeteners or added sugar or synthetic and non-caloric sweetener together with gentle beverages, fruit drinks, sports liquids, sweetened tea, espresso and electricity drinks.

“For the sugar-sweetened-beverage tax as presently proposed, the P10 in keeping with liter (as listed to inflation) will yield P47 billion within the first 12 months of implementation,” Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua, said at some stage in the hearing.

Eighty-five percentage of the tax take could be allocated to government precedence projects to be decided through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and 15 percentage to sugar farmers.

“Our thought is rather than itemizing and indicating precise breakdowns of the proceeds of sales to fund essential applications, is first to handiest specify what are the concern programs, with out citing the percentages. This will allow the departments concerned—the DBM and Congress—to expound inside the finances what this allocation ought to be,” Chua stated.

The method will permit the government corporations a few flexibility in prioritizing the funds.

“There also are issues from stakeholders who may be affected, together with farmers and sugar-producing provinces. In the spirit of the sin tax, wherein there’s an allocation to gain those who could be affected, we are not objecting to any proposal that might allocate a few quantity to the affected farmers within the sugar producing regions, furnished that these finances are properly accounted for and obvious and might be used to advantage and to amplify their livelihood applications,” Chua noted.