by: Mary Lailani Pitao-Tupaz
NAVAL, Biliran – With the implementation of Republic Act No. 10351 or the Sin Tax Reform Law of 2012, several men and women who smoke in the municipality of Naval swore to quit smoking.
A family man who requested not to be named said he will be compulsed to stop smoking due to the exorbitant price of cigarette per stick at present.
He said, the brand of cigarette he used to smoke only costs P1.00 per stick before but now this costs P5.00 per three sticks.
If he consumes a pack of cigarette per day which contains 20 sticks, that will cost him around P35.00 which is so much for a jobless young man like him. So he would rather stop smoking and save his meager allowance.
While an adult woman who also requested anonymity in the grocery returned her cigarette items upon reaching the counter and learned of the current price of cigarettes per ream. She doubted the salability of cigarettes among smokers with the current price that almost doubled the previous price
Under the Sin Tax Reform Law of 2012, machine packed cigarettes are imposed around 100% of excise tax from its net retail price which increases every year until 2017.
Moreover, increase of excise tax on packed cigarettes is fixed at 4% effective 2018 and every year thereafter. (MLT/PIA8 Biliran)