BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) is appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to ignore the calls of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno to allow industrial users to directly import their sugar needs as a concession to the looming increase in taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.
UNIFED president Manuel Lamata said they are “totally against the move of Diokno to liberalize importation in favor of a few industrial users.”
“He [Diokno] wants to enrich these industrial users further, even knowing that this move will kill the more than 5 million Filipinos dependent on the sugar industry,” Lamata said.
Diokno, he added, is bent only on raising taxes without considering its effects on the sugar farmers. “Is Diokno prepared to give these five million industry stakeholders a livelihood?”
“The Finance Secretary is ill-advised,” Lamata said, adding that beyond the goal of raising taxes, “Diokno should also think of the consumers or the general public who will also be affected as these industrial users will surely pass on the additional taxes to their consumers.”
UNIFED hopes the President will not endorse this plan, which was never done in consultation with the sugar industry stakeholders.
“We know President Marcos’ heart is with and for the farmers, as he has told us so, and we are calling for his intervention on this matter,” Lamata said.
“Diokno is clearly anti-farmer,” he added.
In a report by GMA News on Monday, June 26, Diokno sees liberalizing or allowing manufacturers of sweetened beverages to directly import their sugar or sweetener requirements as a “reasonable compromise” for the government’s plan to increase duties and broaden the tax base for sweetened beverages.
The Department of Finance plans to increase the beverage tax rate under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law to P12 per liter, regardless of the type of sweetener used, remove exemptions, and index the rate by four percent annually.
“We will make it uniform. I think administratively, that’s also good to simplify,” Diokno said in his weekly press chat.
Currently, the TRAIN law mandates a P6 per liter excise tax on beverages using caloric and non-caloric sweeteners and a P12 per liter tax on beverages using high-fructose corn syrup.
“We will broaden the base,” the Finance chief said, noting that exemptions will be eliminated. (With a report from GMA News Online)/PN
