With their survival at stake, tobacco farmers and workers will troop to the Senate today to ask the senators to reject the 700 percent increase in the tax on low-grade cigarettes as proposed by the Department of Finance. The Senate ways and means committee chaired by Senator Ralph Recto will conducts its third public hearing today on the proposal.
While promising to pass the sin tax bill by December, Recto however assured all stakeholders in the tobacco industry the increase would be reasonable to generate maximum revenues without so much dislocation and disruption. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who both came from the tobacco-producing provinces have opposed the DOF-proposed excise tax hike because of its adverse effects on the industry and the lives of over 2 million farmers and workers.
Asuncion Lopez, spokesman of the Philippine Tobacco Growers Association, assailed the proposed tax increase in the wake of the campaign promise of President Aquino that he would not impose new taxes during his watch. She said that the exorbitant tax proposal would wipe out their means of livelihood and displace not only farmers, but also the over 2 million workers and their families. “The farmers’ sector is asking all our senators to please consider the interests of the tobacco farmers, our families and all tobacco stakeholders who will be drastically affected by the proposed tax increase,” Lopez said on the eve of the public hearing.
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