EXCISE tax collected from cigarettes and alcohol in the first 10 months grew by a little over 22 percent, aggregating P105.53 billion, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
With only two more months remaining before year-end, so-called sin-tax revenues for the period were only P9 billion less than total collection in 2014 when this amounted to P114.01 billion.
According to data obtained from the DOF, total sin-tax collection from cigarettes alone amounted to P72.24 billion, or 27.5 percent more, or P15.58 billion, higher than last year’s total haul.
The growth in tax collection from cigarette products was attributed to higher taxes imposed under Republic Act 10351, or the sin-tax law, which imposed higher taxes in 2015 for a uniform tax rate on all classes of tobacco and alcohol products by 2017.
Under the current tax structure, cigarettes priced at less than P11.50 per pack are taxed at a rate of P21 per pack, while those priced at P11.50 or more per pack are taxed at a rate of P28 per pack.
By 2016 the taxes on cigarette products will further increase to P25 per pack for those priced less than P11.50 per pack, while the higher priced packs will be taxed at P29 per pack.
Collection from alcohol products, likewise, increased this year, with total collection as of October amounting o P33.28 billion, or an 11.71-percent increase from the collection for the same period from alcohol products last year.
Fermented liquors, which includes beer, constituted a bulk of the sin- tax collection on alcohol products, amounting to P22.62 billion.
Collection from distilled spirits and compounded liquors amounted to P10.67 billion.
Because of the staggered increase in the tax rate on sin products since 2013, the total collection from sin taxes has tended to increase until the tax rate would have already been made uniform by 2017 for both low-cost brands and premium brands.
In 2013 the first year of implementation of the new sin-tax law, total collection amounted to P103.38 billion, which increased to P112.81 billion in 2014.