By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental Representative Alfredo ‘Albee’ Benitez (3rd District, PDP-Laban) is pushing to lower the proposed excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages from P10 to only P5 per liter.
The solon, a member of the ruling PDP-Laban, said yesterday he submitted the proposal to the House Committee on Ways and Means, which is deliberating on the tax reform package submitted by the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
More than lowering the tax rate, the Benitez proposal also seeks to delete the proposed additional excise tax of P4 per liter every year on all products using sugar as sweeteners.
Benitez also said the Department of Finance (DOF) has requested for a meeting as his proposal mean P22 billion reduction in the projected earnings of the Government from the Excise Tax.
The legislators offered a word of caution, however. “If we will allow the original proposal, time will come that the prices of soft drinks and other beverages would be higher than building a house,” Benitez explained.
The senior leader of the Visayan bloc also said he will be meeting with members of the caucus to collate and incorporate their suggestions in the proposed amendments.
As far as revenue raised by the proposed sugar tax, Benitez said he supports the proposal to allocated 15 percent of the proceeds be funneled back to support the country’s sugar industry. The most feasible way, he confirmed, would be to increase the allocations already mandated by the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA), which he had sponsored in the House of Representatives and was signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III.
Under SIDA, P2 billion a year is allocated towards the Sugar Development Fund. Benitez wants this increased by P3.5 billion for a total annual allocation of P5.5 billion.
Meanwhile, lawyer Emilio Yulo, spokesman of the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines (SAP), has asked Benitez to lobby for a further reduction of the tax to P2 per liter, a suggestion also made by Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr.
Yulo is also asking for a moratorium of five to six years.
He explained the sugar industry was seriously hurt by the entry of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and with the looming implementation of the sugar tax, stakeholders also fear the demand will slacken and prices once again drop./WDJ