THE Malacañang version of the so-called sin-tax reform bill was drafted without proper consultation to the people who will be adversely affected by the proposal to raise excise tax rates on alcohol and tobacco products.

Members of the House of the Representatives’ ways and means committee uncovered this during a public hearing of the draft bill branded by several legislators as “anti-poor” because stakeholders from the tobacco and alcohol industries were not allegedly consulted.

In Vigan City, meanwhile, thousands of Virginia tobacco farmers and provincial officials on Tuesday voiced their opposition to House Bill 5727, or the sin-tax bill,  by holding an indignation rally in front of the capitol building.

Tobacco farmer leader Benjamin Sarmiento said the controversial bill is not favorable to the tobacco industry.

“If the bill will be passed and be approved, the tax for locally made high quality cigarettes will increase from P12 per pack to P30 per pack until 2014 while the premium imported cigarettes would only increase from P28.30 per pack to P30 per pack in which the importers are greatly benefited considering that only 40 percent from the total volume of cigarette produced in the country are high quality and the remaining 60 percent are of low quality,” he said.

The bill, drafted by the Department of Finance (DOF), was recently filed by Liberal Party Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite. It seeks to change the current multi-rate specific structure of the excise tax on tobacco and alcohol products by adopting a unitary rate, raising an additional P60 billion yield in taxes.

Finance Assistant Secretary Teresa Habitan admitted that the department did not consult any stakeholders following a query from Nacionalist Party Rep. Vincent Crisologo of Quezon City, whether consultations were done before the country’s economic managers drafted the bill endorsing the single rate tax.

Crisologo also asked his fellow legislators present in the hearing if they were consulted. The other solons replied in the negative.

“As you know in Congress, before we draft a bill, we usually consult the people who are affected by it.  We call them on a meeting that’s why we have district offices,” Crisologo said.

With Habitan’s admission, Crisologo moved that the discussion on the Palace-backed excise tax bill be deferred to give way to a pre-conference with the congressmen from tobacco-producing provinces. 

“I believe that before we tackle this bill, there should be a pre-conference with the congressmen in order not to prolong the discussions in the committee. Because we won’t be able to finish it here in this committee, as you see, many of the congressmen here are affected,” Crisologo said.