THE Marcos administration will push for the passage of new tax measures this year, particularly additional taxes on sweetened beverages and junk food, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said yesterday.
“The revenue measures of the DOF (Department of Finance). Their revenue measures for sweet and salty beverages were planned to kick in by 2025, but what they did is, they will advance it to 2024. So they have now, when the Congress opens, until the end of the year, they will push for the new revenue measures,” Pangandaman said in a mix of English and Filipino during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
“Secretary Ben [Diokno] and the DOF team seem very positive on the package of said revenue measures,” she said.
In September last year, the Department of Health (DOH) announced it is proposing additional taxes on junk food and sweetened beverages as it seeks to address obesity in the country and boost revenues for the universal healthcare program.
Specific details on the proposed additional tax measures are yet to be disclosed, but the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) is expecting P53.7 billion in additional revenues from the excise tax on sweetened beverages.
“For salty foods, they’re [DOF] still studying it,” Pangandaman said.
A 2020 study conducted by the National Tax Research Center (NTRC) showed that the country could raise as much as P72.97 billion from a 20% excise tax collection on junk food, P54.73 billion from 15%, and P36.48 billion from 10%.
The DOH, in proposing the additional taxes, said that the potential revenues will be used to finance the Universal Healthcare Law, which automatically enrolls all Filipino citizens under the National Health Insurance Program.
The proposal to increase taxes on sweetened beverages will be on top of the existing rates under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, signed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017, which mandates a P6-per-liter excise tax on beverages using caloric and non-caloric sweeteners, and P12 per-liter tax on beverages using high-fructose corn syrup. (GMA Integrated News)
