Congressmen are not taking the proposal to impose “sin taxes” on salt with a grain of salt – they completely abhor the idea as “anti-poor.”
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte-Salceda who regularly initiates tax measures being chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said the Department of Health proposal “will be inflationary and highly regressive.”
But Salceda said “junk food tax” can be a more logical alternative.
On the other hand, House oppositionists led by Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate appeared incredulous, saying that the DOH should stop “spooking” Filipinos with anti-poor “asin tax” proposal.
Citing rising incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCD), Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the strategy of increasing taxes on sin products may be applied on salt and salty products to address the problem.
Duque cited the rising incidence of end-stage renal failure and hypertension, among other NCD’s, as being caused by high consumption of salt. He claimed the country’s economy suffers a big dent of P756.5 billion due to NCD’s affecting millions of Filipinos.
“There is a world of difference between alcohol and cigarettes versus sugar and salt,” said Salceda when he learned about Duque’s proposal.
While we take cognizance of the DOH and WHO’s warnings of negative health impacts of high salt content of our consumption patterns, we are also concerned that this will constitute a tax on the entire food item.
“Take the highest level of care when it comes to taxing food especially when we are targeting specific items like sugar and salt which are only one of its many ingredients many of which are beneficial to health,” the veteran solon said.
He stressed that aside from being inflationary and highly regressive, the proposed tax measure will aggravate the on-going pork supply problem triggered by the African Swine Flu scare.
“At this point, while the House Committee on Ways and Means is primordially averse to any tax on food, it will examine instead a junk food tax since the consumptive logic of such eating habit is more obvious and pernicious to a most vulnerable population segment – our young people,” said Salceda.
He urged the DOH not to pass “the ball of health outcomes to tax policy” while failing to successfully executive “affirmative action on health issues such as polio, dengue and other diseases.”
“More so, the Committee on Ways and Means reiterates its message to the DOH that the House has worked resolutely to fund the Universal Health Care program and would less charitable to any partial rollout,” said Salceda.
Zarate voiced out Bayan Muna’s strong objection to the “asin tax”, noting that the bill had been filed in the 17th Congress but was eventually withdrawn.
“Is it because it is now Halloween that the Department of Health (DOH) is spooking us by making a zombie of the now dead and anti-poor Asin Tax?,” asked House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate.
He agreed with Salceda opinion that imposing higher taxes on salt and salty products will “jack up the prices of products mostly consumed by poor Filipinos like dried fish, sardines and noodles.”
“For example a cup noodle with a 990 mg sodium content would be priced P490 after the daily dietary allowance for adults at 500 mg is subtracted. Likewise a canned sardine which has a 610 mg sodium content would be worth P110 after the enactment of the Asin tax,” the opposition lawmaker stated.
He added: “It is tragically ironic that the government wants to tax more the poor but it rushed the passage of the bill in Congress that would lower the income tax rate of corporations and the rich.” (Ben R. Rosario)
