According to the Philippine National News Agency, during a hearing of the Ways and Means Committee of the Philippine House of Representatives, panel chairman and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said that the “substitution effect” from cigarettes to e-cigarettes is having an impact on the collection of tobacco excise taxes. “real impact”. It also pointed out that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) expects tobacco excise tax collections to drop by at least 11% this year.
Salceda said Statista expects the e-cigarette market size to reach Php 13.244 billion, and using only the free base rate and average price, the industry should pay at least Php 5.56 billion.
Salceda pointed out that for consumers, e-cigarettes are more “bang for their buck” in terms of number of puffs, hence the shift from cigarettes to e-cigarettes – each e-cigarette can hold 10,000 puffs and the price It costs Php 490, while a pack of 300 puffs of cigarettes costs Php 125.
While e-cigarette sales are currently not specifically classified as a separate industry under the Philippine Standard Industrial Classification, Salceda said it is recommended that the manufacturing and sale of e-cigarettes be classified as a separate industry category to strengthen regulation.
During the hearing, Salceda also praised the actions taken by the Customs Bureau led by Chief Bienvenido Rubio to combat the illegal trade of e-cigarettes, which released an investigation into the seizure of e-cigarettes at a Valenzuela warehouse. The investigation resulted in the investigation of 1.4 million e-cigarettes, which were allegedly smuggled and labeled “Made by Flava Corporation” and suspected of evading P728 million in excise tax and P84 million in value-added tax.
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