HEALTH Justice Philippines, a public health advocacy group,
yesterday expressed strong opposition to the proposals to suspend the imposition of tax for tobacco products.
In a statement, Health Justice said it is against such proposals as it will ultimately undermine efforts to control tobacco consumption in the country.
“A pause in raising tobacco taxes or a rollback in tax rates is a flawed and deceptive solution to address illicit tobacco trade,” it said.
“We strongly urge our lawmakers to resist attempts by the tobacco industry to hijack public health policies and have the moral imperative to defend our nation’s right to health,” it added.
Instead of suspending the tobacco tax, the group said lawmakers should consider imposing the same on vape products.
“They should impose equal tax rates on heated tobacco products and vapes to protect the youth from accessing these deadly products. This way, we can reduce the expenditure in treating the diseases brought by tobacco and vapes,” said Health Justice.
On the illicit tobacco trade, it said aggressive efforts to stop smuggling activities are the best solution.
“An aggressive crackdown on importers, distributors, and retailers, who engage in tobacco smuggling, can best solve this,” said Health Justice.
During the House of Representatives hearing on the proliferation of the illicit trade of tobacco products, some lawmakers mulled the temporary lifting of the annual increase on tobacco excise tax until 2026.
In the Senate hearing on the same issue, tobacco industry representatives submitted a similar proposal to lawmakers.