Update: Recto quits as ways and means chair: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/10/15/12/recto-quits-ways-and-means-chair
In one of the lectures,Dr. Anthony Leachon, cardiologist and consultant on non-communicable diseases of the Department of Health, said recent studies have shown that smoking causes erectile dysfunction.
“You may not die of erectile dysfunction but some men die for it,” quipped Leachon, who is leading the campaign for the passage of the Sin Tax, not the Recto-fied version but the one that the authored by Sen. Miriam Santiago. He also supports the version passed by the House of Representatives authored by then Cavite Representative (now Secretary of Transportation and Communication) Joseph Abaya.
Would Senator Ralph Recto, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, and his pro-tobacco colleagues want a nation of men afflicted with erectile dysfunction? Unless they are in cahoots with manufacturers of Viagra, I don’t think Recto has really considered the health aspects of the Sin Tax bill.
Recto justified his junking of the Santiago bill which would have given the government additional P60 billion in revenues and pushed for his own which would increase taxes on tobacco and alcoholic drinks by only P15 billion saying it’s “economic equilibrium. “
I don’t know what “economic equilibrium” is so I’m wondering how much did it cost the cigarette manufacturers.
What I know is that equilibrium denotes balance; a state or condition where different forces are balanced.
How could there be equilibrium in a piece of legislation that would deprive the Filipino people of some P45 billion for public hospitals and rural health units and other basic services that would improve their health.
How could there be equilibrium in a piece of legislation that would not discourage people from smoking because the price cigarettes and alcohol would still be affordable to the poor, who currently make up most of the consumers of those sin products.
Recto and his pro-tobacco are concerned about the burden of higher taxes on the manufacturers fearful that if they would stop manufacturing, there would be no taxes to collect.
Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner said the government collects P45 billion from tobacco taxes.
Yet, the government spends P144 billion to treat cardiovascular, respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer, the four major ailments caused by smoking.
Proponents of the Sin Tax bill have underscored that it is primarily a health bill because it will raise taxes on the cigarettes and alcohol with the aim of making it unaffordable to the poor.
Henares makes a lot of sense when she said that if everybody stopped smoking, “then the government will be saving P144 billion.”
Not only will the government be able to save P144 billion, but the country gains by having a healthy and productive citizenry.
Sin products manufacturers are being cynical when they justify their business with the argument that cigarettes and alcohol are the entertainment of the poor. Santiago is right: “The purpose of entertainment is relaxation and not death.”
The rich, who comprise a minority in this country, have the choice to spend their money on useful things and activities and live a more productive and fulfilling life. But if they want to use their money to commit slow suicide, let them be.
Let them and those who oppose sensible Sin Tax suffer erectile dysfunction. That would be the ultimate equilibrium.
It’s good to be back! Thanks for your patience. Sana tigilan na ng hackers itong site. Doon na lang nila gamitin yung talents nila sa mga manloloko.
Recto’s EVAT & SinTax version are too much burden for the country. I understand what the DOH mean for government’s version of “health above revenues”. What reality that sen. Ralph Recto talked about?
re #1
ellen even hackers have their own chosen paths; those righteous & those senseless.
The Rectum e-Vatman is back!
Sana mag-suffer sya ng erectile dysfunction!
Rectum is senator no more by early next year and meeting up with Sin manufacturers surely brings him a much needed equilibrium. 1 plus 1 equals 11. Elementary my dear Watson.
Swerte pa sya at hindi tatakbo sa election kundi ay kulelat ang labas nya. Sino nga bang mga gago ang bumuboto kay Recto hindi na sila nadala sa e-vat?
Ellen
We prayed hard to have your site back to normal.
We will be praying harder that Recto and his cohorts will develop early Leriche syndome and Alzheimer dementia from cigarette smoke.
#5
Recto’s position is asinine. He should have been a proctologist instead of senator. His name and ass backwards thinking fit perfectly.
Ellen,
Ang sagot ni Rectum kay Dr. Leachon, “Ganun ba? Okay, I will just remove the tax on Viagra.”
Sin tax per se is good, but it should also be directed to finance fighting Cigarette smuggling among other campaigns as surely as that sun rises will surely came into Play. And of Course when you are in bad health. ED is always an issue. But a low dosage of Cialis (5 mg) is a good maintenance for HBP. That is how this ED medication was uncovered , the unending search for cardiovascular med that is a gold mine and the druggies end up with bigger gold mines. At $20 a pop (luckily most of us here have that is called extended insurance, not covered by govt. the private insurance will cover it, and I am not even a smoker but we don’t call it an ED pill, instead the Docs call it a Hero Pill. at 70 and beyond he he )
Update:
Recto quits as ways and means chair
ABS-CBNnews.com
Senator Ralph G. Recto on Monday resigned as chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, only days after coming under fire for approving a “watered-down” version of the sin tax reform bill. He also announced he is withdrawing the controversial committee report on the sin tax bill.
In a privilege speech at the Senate, Recto said he has become the “national punching bag of the week.”
“If my resignation is what is required to expedite the passage of this very important bill, then so be it… My resignation will also cure a perceived anomaly by political partisans who treat my criticism of an administration measure as a betrayal of my duties as a Liberal Party senator,” he said.
Read full report here: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/10/15/12/recto-quits-ways-and-means-chair
#6. Fit to a T your description of Senator Rectum, hahahaha!!!
Resigned as chair of the ways and means committee only, dapat sa pagka-senador na. Recto betrayed the masa big time twice already. Ang kapal ng apog ng mga ito.
..”the government collects P45 billion from tobacco taxes.
Yet, the government spends P144 billion to treat cardiovascular, respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer, the four major ailments caused by smoking”.. Gee.. even the late Ray Charles can see that!!
Senator Recto Is A principled man. It is as easy to dance with the Palace beat and curry more favour from its master and until anyone of his Critiques can prove that his watered down Bill is laced with anomalies for which he personally profit I will hold my tongue and my keyboard in spewing poisons that lately been rampant after the SC decided to issue TRO on Internet Libel. Yes sir Insulting and slandering an individual based only in perceptions is not healthy as in effects of Tar and Nicotine. Now let loose the smugglers and stores protect your cigarettes with double barrel shotgun
I am not a smoker and I hate the smell of smoke one hundred miles away. I even had a fist fight with a fellow who would not put out his cigarette in a bus stop and got a bloody nose for it. But bleeding the smokers in a legal product in one shot that will led to more crimes and blaming the Lawmaker and calling him all kinds of insulting names is worse…now why not these bleeding heart initiate a Class action law suit against the Tobacco Industries if the wanted to let the profiteers of death pay their JUST DUE? No body will do it, because this is the society of individuals, “go jump in the lake, I’ll stay and let me know if it warn to swim”
The proposal is a committee report. So that means that the majority of the committee approved it. It is not Recto’s act alone.
Recto is only one vote. Make that two, including Enrile. So simple lang naman ang solution. Work the Daang Matuwid charm, or the pork barrel, or both, and get the votes.
Regarding the title. So does this indicate that a two-pack-a day-guy is like NAPOCOR? Prone to power failure? So what is the gun-toting bachelor’s pill of choice? Viagra? Cialis? Or Levitra?
Now on the merits of Recto’s proposal; shorn of all anger.
This is where we encounter a term I first learned from Winnie Monsod, ages ago, in Economics 11. This is the concept of demand elasticity, or elastic demand, as opposed to inelastic demand.
Demand for goods are said to be inelastic, if, given a price increase, people will not respond with decreased demand. An example will be electricity. No matter how high the prices, demand, within a certain minimum, is inelastic – will not decrease. (You will still switch on the lights, no matter what the price.)
So you can increase the price all you want, and there will be no decrease in demand. You, thereofre, get higher revenues, and consequently, higher taxes. The same is true, for water. So it is better to keep it in the government, than the private sector, because the government can be mandated by law to keep done its profits.
Now some products will have elastic demand. If you increase the price, then people will either consume less, or switch to a different product. A substantial increase in the price of meat for instance, will make people will buy more fish, or more mungo. If the price increase is imperceptible (barya lang), then they may not budge. So there is an optimal price increase that will not change behavior.
Now in the case of alcohol or tobacco, it may be true that people will not give up their habits. But if the increase is prohibitive, there may be a decrease in demand. remember the APO lyrics? “Ubos na rin ang beer kaya kape na lang. Lahat sinusubkan kahit walang pulutan.”
So the increase in taxes, if too high (is it really 1,000%?) may be met with decreased demand. So what is your net tax take? Decreased demand multiplied by higher tax. Is the total higher? Or lower? That requires some computing.
How much change in demand will that tax motivate? Have they done studies on that? Or is the government just presuming that demand is inelastic, and people will just keep buying?
So there may be truth in Recto’s assertion that taxing too much will kill the goose that lays the golden egg. I am not saying that that is a certainty. But statistics have to be generated to aid the lawmakers. Speculative conclusions, such as: “It will decrease sales”, or “It will not decrease sales, and will generate more taxes”, should not be the basis for decision-making. Those speculations must be backed up with numbers.
So where are those numbers?
The shit coming out of Senator Rectum was exposed in the article by Dr. Antonio Dans. His article focuses on Rectum’s smuggling claims but it also touches on his claims about elasticity etc. http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=Recto%E2%80%99s-false-smuggling-report&id=60003
The report of Dr. Dans neither confirms nor denies the projected 300% increase (from 15 Billion to 60 Billion) in revenues. I would need to get the opinion of Mareng Winnie here.
1. Canada
Talks about smuggling, but does not give figures as to the percentage increase in tax collection.
2. Hungary
The increase is by what percentage? We cannot determine from this story. And what was the level of tax increase? We do not know either. A check with the Hungarians, to learn from their experience would be in order.
3. Ireland
What was the percentage growth? By what percentage was tax increased, to achieve the unspecified growth rate?
4. Malaysia
What was the base? Is the increase 300% like that projected in the Philippines? What was the percentage tax increase to achieve this collection?
5. New York
So the police produced the revenue increase. It was not a product of increased taxes.
6. Romania
Akala ko ba dapat ipasa ang RH Bill para mabawasan ang populasyon. Pero pinapahinto manigarilyo ang mga tao para wag silang mamatay sa sakit na dulot ng paninigarilyo?
“Not only will the government be able to save P144 million, but the country gains by having a healthy and productive citizenry.”-Ellen
Is it proven that the P144 million exclusive to disease caused by cigarette smoking? Having a healthy and productive citizenry is still debatable. It may also be either a healthy and idle or healthy and lazy workforce.
Ano ba talaga ang purpose ng Sin Tax Bill, pahintuin ang mga addict sa sigarilyo o kumalap ng pera para sa gobierno?
Sax at 18…here is some from Fraser Institute which I copy and pasted some of its data on the effects of excise tax on cigarettes…
Smuggling and trafficking of contraband cigarettes is an unintended consequence of federal and provincial tobacco tax policies,” said Diane Katz, Fraser Institute director of risk, environment, and energy policy.
The effects of increased tobacco taxes became evident after the federal government hiked tobacco excise taxes from $6.01 per carton in April 1985 to $19.14 in February 1991 in an effort to discourage smoking and boost tax revenue. Coinciding with these tax increases, Canada’s contraband tobacco market grew from one per cent of total market share to an estimated 31 per cent share.
Similarly, the contraband tobacco market receded substantially after 1994, when the government reduced tobacco excise taxes in order to weaken incentives to smuggle and distribute contraband cigarettes. But contraband tobacco sales again surged after 2001, when tobacco taxes were increased under pressure from anti-smoking advocates and public health officials.
And despite the 2001 increase in excise taxes, government revenue from tobacco has been dropping considerably. Between 2001 and 2008, the federal tobacco tax generated nearly $204 billion in revenue. However, it peaked in 2005 and has declined ever since, dropping to $21.1 billion in 2008 from $31.1 billion (in real 2002 Canadian dollars).
“The burgeoning black market for contraband tobacco counteracts the government’s goals of increasing tax revenue and discouraging smoking, as more smokers substitute contraband cigarettes for lawful tobacco products.” Katz said.
If smokers are evading taxes by purchasing black market cigarettes, increasing taxes to discourage smoking is essentially ineffective.”
Other research referenced in the report indicates that anti-smoking efforts such as health awareness campaigns, smoking bans, and restrictions on tobacco advertising and sales are just as effective at discouraging smoking as increasing tobacco taxes. In fact, research shows that smoking among Canadians did not increase when tobacco excise taxes were lowered in 1994, and that the number of Canadians who smoke has continuously decreased
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/news/display.aspx?id=16327
Galing sa isang OFW sa Saudi na humiling huwag banggitin ang pangalan:
Target ni Sen. Meriam Santiago na 60 Billion ang malikom a sin tax, pag dating ni Recto naging 15 billion nalang, eh malaking question mark ito.
Kailangan ma monitor itong si Recto at ang mga may ari ng pagawan ng sigarilyo. Kasayang naman 45 billiones ang nawala malaking bagay na sana iyon mailapat sa mga proyekto ng pilipinas.
Kong gayon, hindi constructive ang effort ni Recto para sa bansang nagkandahirap tulad ng Pilipinas….
Dapat itong si Ralf Recto huwag nag ibuto sa eleksyon, e junk ito.Ang tagal na bilang senador ng Pilipinas tapos ganyan parin ang asta?
Dapat lang na di na ito iboto.
Yung tinukoy ni Vic sa itaas # 20, yung 31.1 Billion ng Canada naging 21.1 Billion. Kung ihahambing yan sa 15 Billion pesos, sa halip na maging 60, magiging 10 Billion.
Araling mabuti yang mga numero. Huwag puro haka-haka.
Galing kay Neil Sedka:
Talaga yatang wala nang pag asa ang bayan natin. Kung matino ang presidente, marami pa ring tarantadong tulad ni Recto at Enrile o yung ibang politiko na nagpapayaman lang. Ano kalokohan iyang ibababa sa 15 bilyon ang dapan makolekta ng gobyerno? Ang pag taas ng buwis ay deterrent o pang pigil sa mga Pinoy na mag bisyo, lalu na para sa nakararami na mababa ang kaalaman at hindi na maka pag-isip ng tama.
Pabor para sa mamamayan ang mataas na buwis. Dito sa North America, sigarilyo ang isa sa pina kamahal bilhin, bawal manigarilyo sa loob ng mga gusali at may mga pangit na labels ang sigarilyo. Isusunod na nila ang bawal na paninigarilyo kung ikaw ay umuupa lang ng apartment. Halos lahat ng hotel ay no smoking na rin. Resulta? Mababang lung cancer rate.
Pero sa atin, hanggang nandiyan ang mga may sariling interes tulad ni Recto na baka pinangakuan ng tobacco industry na payayamanin hanngang apo niya ay masama para sa bayan.
Katulad ni Arroyo, dito sa NA diretso na sa kulungan iyan, diyan sa atin, palulusutin pa. Hindi na talaga tayo magbabago…sa pulitika, puro dynasty at kung sino ang popular.
Habang panay ang basa ko ng Abante at ibang pahayagan, dismayado ako at nawawalan ng pag-asa na titino pa ang Pinas.
Nakaka-awa ang Pinas!
Click on link below to read the full privilege speech of Sen. Recto explaining why he was resigning as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee:
Privilege Speech delivered by Sen Recto Oct 15,2012
all these worries about increased tobacco smuggling made me think first of this — price
what is the average price of cigarettes here compared to other countries? i only ask because i recalled an interview with kim henares saying that we are actually the source of smuggling for other countries because the price of tobacco here is so cheap.
the only way smuggling will flourish is if there are other nearby countries where cigarette is cheap enough that the smugglers will make a profit.
and if cigarettes here will still be more affordable compared to other countries even after the raised taxes, smuggling will most likely occur if the cigarette manufacturers will be in on it too.
Sai @ 25 ..prices of cigarette before excise, evat and other taxes are cheap anywhere. It is not Just Smuggling but Contraband that could be coming from the same manufacturer before Taxes. Under this context smuggling is defined as imported goods by passing duties and taxes…Contrabands could includes smuggled goods and goods from within but taxes and other govt obligations Not Paid. Almost 2/3 retail price of cigarette is taxes. Indians and First Nation Tribes being exempt taxes for their consumption and business within the reserves can be the big Sources of Contraband cigarette that can transcend BORDERS. and with organized Crimes and underground Tobacco industries in partnership it is a very Big business.
Nice piece – I laughed out loud at the end. I guess the question in my mind is: who gained the most from Recto’s moves? The tobacco companies certainly. And Recto himself?
Hi Candy, nice to see you here. I’ve read about your children’s books.
Recto’s version of the bill may have favored the tobacco companies but with his resignation as chair of the committee on ways and means, the tobacco companies “investments” are in peril.
Whether the excise tax is the version Of Recto or the 60 B version the tobacco industries will not be paying the tax no matter how their cigarette is Bought, over the table , Recto version ….but the smokers. And even if their cigarette is sold as contraband the industry will still make profit and don’t have to pay any income taxes on cigarette sold under the Table. And if to believe that the high Price of cigarette will discourage addiction to Nicotine, nobody would be using illicit drugs that even the poorest of the poor and the wealthiest will commit crime to have.