ProGRESS and vape regress
The Department of Finance held a “Stakeholder briefing on Promoting Growth, Revenue and Equity toward Socio-Economic Sustainability (ProGRESS) Bill” on Sept. 2 at the Land Bank Plaza Hall in Manila. I was invited and attended it. Perhaps there were 400 people in the hall.
On September 2, the Department of Finance held a stakeholder briefing to discuss the ProGRESS Bill, which aims to promote growth, revenue, and equity towards socio-economic sustainability. The Bill consists of three main issues: tax relief for micro and small businesses, new sin tax rates for various products, and a wealth tax on luxury vehicles and non-essential goods.
In the BusinessWorld column "Looking at LGUs' budget surplus and the ProGRESS consultation," the author argued that the DOF's proposed P350,000 per year income should be increased to P500,000, and the tax brackets should be reduced from six to five. Regarding luxury vehicles, the author expressed disagreement with the DOF's plan to add a 75% tax for gasoline vehicles exceeding P8 million, instead proposing that all cars should be taxed at the same rate.
The new sin tax rates have been a topic of extensive discussion among stakeholders. The sugar tax was a contentious issue, with concerns raised by the sugar industry in Negros and sari-sari store vendors. The vape tax also garnered attention from NGOs, academics, and industry representatives.
During the open forum, the author spoke about the dual taxation of vape products and the need to find an optimal tax rate that would generate revenue for the government, reduce illicit trade, and discourage smoking and vaping. The author presented a formula to calculate tax revenue based on the tax rates for nicotine salt (NS) and freebase (FB) products, suggesting that raising the tax to higher levels would lead to increased smuggling and illicit trade.
The author proposed a single, unitary tax rate of P10 per ml, as it would generate more revenue while minimizing the incentive for smuggling.
Written by urgent.news from Philippine Star Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
