By Dominique Gabriel G. Banaga

Abang Lingkod Party list Rep. Stephen Paduano expressed surprise over the inclusion of sugar-sweetened beverages in the government’s tax reform package that had already passed the ways and means committee of the House of Representatives.
Paduano, a native of Bacolod City, said he also bucked the imposition of excise taxes on diesel fuel and other petroleum products and the removal of restaurant discounts for senior citizens.
The first-termer solon said excise taxes is supposed to be imposed on high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) but it cannot be taxed under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement entered into by the Philippines with other Asian nations.
Paduano said this will be an additional problem for people because it will jack up the prices of beverages including commonly-used products like 3-in-1 coffee, compounding further problems of the sugar industry that had been threatened recently by the entry of HFCS.
As a compromise during the committee hearing chaired by Rep. Dakila Cua, there is a proposal that the 15 percent of the tax imposed on sugar-sweetened products will go to the industry, Paduano said.
Paduano is also against excise taxes on gasoline that will start at P3 per liter this year, an additional P2 in 2018, and P1 per liter in 2019, or a total of P6 per liter over three years.
“Although gradual, this will definitely affect other goods and products because fuel is universal so this will affect all of us,” he pointed out.
One of the highlights of the Tax Reform Package is the tax exemption for minimum wage earners with an annual salary of up to P250,000, and lowering of the Income Tax for corporations from 30 percent to 25 percent.
The Duterte government is targeting a “net gain” of P200 billion a year to offset revenues lost from lower income taxes.
Excise taxes, according to the internal revenue bureau, is a tax on the production, sale, or consumption of a commodity. It is classified into two types: a specific tax imposed based on weight or volume; and an ad valorem tax based on selling price or other specified value of the goods or articles./WDJ