THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is expected to submit to President Arroyo its formal proposal on increased taxes on sin and luxury products after consultations with its members and other stakeholders in the next three weeks.

PCCI chairman emeritus Donald Dee told reporters he discussed the informal proposal with the Chief Executive over lunch with other Filipino-Chinese business leaders at the fifth biennial convention of the Chinese-Filipino Business Club Inc. at the Manila Hotel.

Dee said he told the President about the findings of a Social Weather Stations Inc. survey three months ago showing 86 percent of  respondents favoring higher taxes on cigarettes.

“The President said...that I should work on the details which they will review extensively later on,” Dee said.

He said that by pushing for higher sin taxes, as well as increased levies and registration fees for luxury cars, the corresponding revenues may be used to support efforts to ease the impact of high oil prices on the public transportation sector, for example.

Dee said it would be necessary for the government to show that whatever additional sin taxes it collects would be channeled to the most needy sectors.

Asked when he expects to submit a formal PCCI proposal to the President, Dee said, “I need another three weeks to do all of the studies because I also do not want to be unfair to the companies manufacturing these products.”

He said he has felt some “pressure from all of these giant producers of these kind of products” but added that he has assured them that they will be consulted about the move before any position paper reaches the President.

Dee said consultations will begin next week, beginning with the PCCI membership. “From within first, then we will call everybody in,” he said.

Francis Chua, another PCCI official and honorary president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FFCCCI) said it is important to hear all sides on the proposal “because if we just impose anything without proper consultation, we might be creating more havoc than anything else.”

Dee said that the particular SWS survey on sin taxes was not commissioned by the PCCI but was released, though not publicly circulated, three months ago.

He said some of the respondents in favor of higher sin taxes allegedly wondered why medicines are so expensive in the Philippines yet health-threatening cigarettes are cheap compared with other countries.

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THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is expected to submit to President Arroyo its formal proposal on increased taxes on sin and luxury products after consultations with its members and other stakeholders in the next three weeks.

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