AS mobility restrictions eased, excise taxes from “sin” products from January to September this year rose to P230.9 billion, posting a double-digit growth from the same period in 2020.
Latest preliminary data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the sin tax collection of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs went up by 18.9 percent from P194.2 billion they collected in the nine-month period last year.
“Compared to 2020, there is more economic activity this year. Increased mobility, too,” Finance Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa Habitan told BusinessMirror.
So far, the government’s sin tax collection is already equivalent to 77.5 percent of its P297.8 billion goal for this year.
Bulk of the sin tax collections during the period came from tobacco products, which yielded P141.9 billion. This was also a 23.5-percent spike from last year’s P114.9 billion.
The second-biggest share of sin tax collections came from alcohol products, with the tax haul amounting to P63.1 billion. This is 21.6 percent higher than P51.9 billion a year ago.
Collections from sweetened beverages, however, fell by 5.7 percent year-on-year to P25.8 billion from P27.4 billion.
A substantial portion of total sin taxes collected goes to the implementation of the universal health-care program.
In 2020, total sin tax collection dropped by 3.27 percent to P260.58 billion from P269.4 billion in 2019 amid the economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, the government exceeded last year its downgraded goal of P235.3 billion.
Under Republic Act (RA) 11346 signed into law in July 2019, excise taxes on tobacco products were further increased to P50 per pack this year from P45 per pack a year ago.
Excise taxes on alcohol, heated tobacco products, and vapor products were also further raised under RA 11467.
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