Deceitful. And murderous

YELLOW PAD BY FILOMENO STA. ANA Ill and PIA RODRIGO

- BY FILOMENO STA. ANA Ill and PIA RODRIGO

Taking up the cudgels for big tobacco, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) wants to lower tobacco tax rates.

So goes the news story titled "JTI lobbying for tweak in cigarette tax policy" (BusinessMirror, Aug. 12).

JTI claims that "high taxation does not necessarily translate into better health outcomes." JTI's corporate affairs and communications director, Shaiful Bahari Mahpar, said that high taxation caused the decline in consumption of legal tobacco brands but increased the illicit tobacco trade in the Philippines.

The JTI argument, which is likewise the argument of the whole tobacco industry, is most deceitful.

What the tobacco industry wants to "reform" is the annualized indexation of tax rates, equivalent to 5%. It claims that the 5% yearly tax increase is too high and is lobbying for its removal, going as far as pushing for House Bill 11360, a bill railroaded in the 19th Congress. But such a rate is in fact inadequate to reduce the affordability of cigarettes. It merely protects the value of the tax rate from being eroded by inflation.

The evidence is likewise clear.

Making tobacco prices steeper through higher taxes will result in a fall in demand. This is most welcome because we want people to stop smoking, or at least reduce consumption. Contrary to JTI's absurd claim that there is "no change in the overall total consumption in the Philippines," a series of tobacco excise tax laws increasing taxes significantly in 2012, 2017, and 2019, led to adult smoking prevalence falling from 29.7% in 2009 to 19.5% in 2021 (Global Adult Tobacco Survey).