REVENUE FROM alcohol and tobacco excise, otherwise known as the “sin” taxes, continued to surge past targets in the first nine months of the year, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.
Excise taxes collected from alcohol and tobacco products hit P156.25 billion, exceeding the year-earlier collections by 12.55%.
Taxes raised from alcohol grew 15.22% year-on-year to P49.36 billion in the nine months to September, which exceeded the target by 24.35%.
Levies from tobacco products, on the other hand, grew 11.36% year-on-year to P106.89 billion, exceeding the target by 10.91%.
In September, alcohol excise tax collections rose 13.82% to P5.63 billion while tobacco excise revenue fell 57.71% to P8.88 billion.
The decline in tobacco was due to base effects in the year earlier, in the form of Mighty Corp.’s partial tax settlement amounting to P17.6 billion, the DoF said.
Part of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, or Republic Act No. 10963, raised tobacco taxes as a health measure to P32.5 per pack in January, and increased it further to P35 in July, from P30 in 2017. The law will raise the excise tax gradually to P40 per pack until 2022.
The DoF seeks to raise alcohol and tobacco taxes further, as part of a wide-ranging reform of the tax system. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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