Cig makers paid P148B in 2019

EXCISE tax payments of cigarette manufacturers rose last year, accounting for more than half of the government’s total sin tax collections, data from the Department of Finance (DoF) showed.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P147.5 billion in ‘sin’ taxes from cigarette products in 2019, up 8 percent from the P136.5 billion collected a year earlier, according to the data.

The 2019 excise taxes paid by cigarette-makers accounted for 54.77 percent of the BIR’s P269.1-billion collections from sin products and equivalent to 6.76 percent of the bureau’s P2.18-trillion total generated revenues in 2019.

The data also showed that the BIR’s sin tax revenues from alcoholic beverages accounted for 29.61 percent, or P79.7 billion, while sugar-sweetened beverages shared the remaining P15.6 percent, or P42 billion.

In 2019, the bureau’s alcohol and sugar sin tax collections also increased from the year before’s P71.1 billion and P38 billion, respectively.

The DoF said earlier government revenues from sin products, including sweetened beverages, almost doubled between 2015 and 2019 from P143 billion to P269.1 billion.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd said the improved sin tax collections was due to the Duterte administration being “the first government to have pushed more than one ‘sin’ tax hike bill in the Congress during its term.”

The DoF expects revenues from sin taxes, particularly cigarettes, to grown further to P332.2 billion this year after the introduction of new levies on heated tobacco and vapor products, as well as the further increases in alcohol and tobacco taxes.

Based on conservative DoF estimates, the government is poised to raise about P480 billion in sin taxes by 2024.

It also estimates that revenues from heated tobacco and vapor products would reach P14.9 billion this year and P125.8 billion by 2024.

In January, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 11467, which further increased excise taxes on alcohol, heated tobacco and vapor products. It is expected to raise an initial P22.2 billion this year.

The Finance department estimates that P137.2 billion would be collected between 2020 and 2024 as a result of this law.