Sin taxes: Will it help or worsen our economy?
According to ABS-CBN news,
Teves said the administration is looking to raise P10 billion from the first measure while looking at “initially a low of P12 billion or high of P25 billion” from higher taxes on tobacco and liquor.If you look at it in a general point of view, you might think that this will help improve our economy at the same time, save those people from the sickness caused by drinking too much or smoking too much. This will give you the impression that the government is health concious.
But, will adding additional taxes really help mutually?
It's human nature that when craving for a particular product, for example beer, increase in price, they, the consumers will just divert to cheaper alcoholic beverages to satisfy their urges. For example, if beer price increases, they will resort to just buying gin beverages because if you need around 5 bottles of beer to satisfy your urges, half a bottle of gin would already do. In cigarettes, they would just buy the cheaper brand of cigs.
In short, it won't help their health at all and all this would just lure illegal importers and red tape in the government to get their products going at a lower price. This will also cost the poor / needy people more money. No mutual benefit from sin taxes, in short.
Government and Filipino peoples health and the economy
If they are really concerned about the health of the Filipino people, why don't they just ban the said products? The printing of horrific materials in the cigarette packs might help a bit but, at the end of the day, its the discipline of the consumer that matters, not the sin taxes applied.
They are planning to impose additional sin taxes because according to ABS-CBN news,
Recto said the proposal to increase public spending, especially in infrastructure, as well as increasing agricultural productivity would rein in inflation and mitigate the effects of the US financial crisis.Here's the logic. We, the citizens are directly affected if a financial crisis will arise. In other countries like the United States, they provide PRO-people solutions and plans. Here, they plan to add taxes? Isn't that double jeopardy for us? We suffer from financial crisis and yet, the government takes more money from out pocket. It's like saying, "give me more money first so you can benefit from it in the near future."
I don't think it's the governments way of helping us. They do that so the president of the country would have more money to spend. There are other ways to do it other than taking money from the Filipino people. Our measly wages make us budget experts already in cost cutting and budgeting the daily expenditures and they still want to get some from it.
I am not pro-alcoholism or whatever sin products we have like gambling and cigarettes. In fact, I do not drink, smoke or gamble. I am anti those vices.
Anyway, here are some of the graphic images displayed in cigarette packs for sale:
This is a great awareness campaign for those individuals who still choose to smoke depsite of all the warnings from the government or the health department. If they choose to die that way, it's their choice because it's their life. We do not have the right to control them.
Just spread this and let people be aware of the negative effects of smoking. Drinking too much causes serious sickness too like:
- Fatty Liver (Steatosis)
- Hepatitis
- Cirrhosis
To know if you are drinking too much alcohol or in other words, an alcoholic, take this test.
http://www.alcoholscreening.org/
If I am just a Senator here in the Philippines, I disapprove the sin tax proposal!
