Farmers ‘barely surviving’

The Philippine Tobacco Growers’ Association (PTGA) yesterday expressed ‘grave concern’ about proposed increases in tobacco-excise taxes, according to a People’s Television story.

The PTGA said the battery of tax increases was killing the local leaf industry.

In a statement sent to the Philippine News Agency, the PTGA said cigarette taxes had gone up seven times in the past five years, something that had directly impacted leaf production and caused the displacement of a lot of farmers.

“Higher prices have led to a lot of counterfeit cigarettes and these are coming mostly from China and do not use Philippine tobacco,” the PTGA added.

According to data from the National Tobacco Administration, tobacco production went down from 68 million kg in 2013 to 48 million kg in 2017.

The PTGA said that the local tobacco industry had paid about PHP126 billion to the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 2017 alone. But despite its enormous contribution to the Government’s coffers, tobacco farmers were barely surviving.

The group said also that the increases in prices of tobacco products had contributed to a surge in inflation. ‘These cigarette prices have contributed to the spike in inflation to all-time highs,’ it said. ‘Our families are barely coping.’