BIR-Pangasinan watches how Sin Tax boosts collection

Atty. Beverly Milo

URDANETA CITY – A top tax honcho of the Bureau of Internal Revenue maintains a watch and sees attitude if revenue could spike after the Sin Tax has been implemented.

Revenue District Offie-5 chief Beverly Milo, a lawyer, said that there is a tendency that if a tax increases on particular goods, there is a possibility that consumption would decrease.

“Iyong projected pace nagdi-decrease,” she said.

She explained that one can not deduced that with a high tax on Sin Products tax collection by the BIR will eventually increase.

“With a high tax automatically (mag) i-increase iyong revenue. Titingnan sa takbo kunwari nag ko-consume  ka isang araw. Because of the high rate of the product dumoble ang presyo. Nagtipid ka, so from two packs to one pack. Ang nangyari tumaas ang tax pero and consumption bumaba,” she explained.

After the Sin Tax has been implemented last month a stick of Marlboro or Philip Morris Cigarette hiked from two pesos to three pesos from a sidewalk vendor.

According to the BIR Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 90-2012 given recently to this paper by Assistant RDO-4-chief Charmaine dela Torre, a net retail price of a bottle of 750 millimeter Novelino Sparkling that has a net retail price of P109.23 in year 2010 would be stamped by a hefty P 250.00 as a  new tax.

A net retail price of a 330 ml  bottle of San Miguel Lights and a 500 ml bottle of a Red Horse beer that command a price of P47.99 and P38.97 in 2010 would be imposed by a P20.27 and P15.00 , respectively, as new tax.

A 10-stick half pack Marlboro Filter Flip Top cigarette and a one pack 20-stick Winston Lights (box) cigarette that were priced P8.27 and P16.15 in 2010 would be stamped by a P12.00 and  P25.00, respectively as an amended tax.

Milo  said Sin Tax just like the tax imposed among contractors in the Tarlax – Pangasinan La Union Express Way (TPLEX) go to the Large Tax Payer Division of the BIR in Manila and does not go to the coffer of the offices of the BIR in the province.

Milo’s statement has been corroborated by Assistant Regional Director Edgar Pagulayan whose office is based in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

 Pagulayan, a CPA-Lawyer like Milo , stressed that the P33 billion that would be generated by Republic Act No. 1035, an act restructuring the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products, or famously known as Sin Taxes would all be siphoned by the large taxpayer division of the tax agency in Manila.

“It would only the large taxpayer that would benefit on the new spikes,” he stressed (MCO).