Tobacco farmers launch protest action
CONTRA SIN TAX BILL
TOBACCO farmers in Region 1 trooped to the cemeteries on November 1 and 2, not to visit their departed, but to protest what they called the impending death of the tobacco industry once the sin tax bill is passed into law.
Angel Gonong of the Tobacco Growers Association of the Philippines said the death of the tobacco industry is imminent once the proposed increase on taxes for “sin” products, particularly cigarettes, is signed into law.
Gonong said their livelihood will be doomed once their produce, currently levied 20 per cent tax, is slapped the additional 30 percent tax.
He explained that class A and B tobacco produce is sold at P40 per kilo and with the higher tax , they will be left earning only P20.
The situation is worse for class C, D and E tobacco, he added, which comprises 70 percent of their produce used for low class cigarettes, which would increase in price from the present P10 per 20-stick pack to P30 per pack.
“So who else would buy the product?” he asked.
He said farmers earn only P5,000 per hectare for one season and each spend P30,000 per hectare over the three-month production.
Farmers plant tobacco for one season per year from December to February.
“What’s worse is our produce would not be bought anymore next year because buyers would be on a ‘wait- and- see- mode’ due to expected signing into law of sin tax bill by January and its implementing rules and regulations would be out by February,” he said.
The main centers of what the group called their “tobacco rebellion on November 1 were San Fabian in Pangasinan; the public market in Batac, Ilocos Norte; public cemeteries in Candon, Ilocos Sur; San Isidro Villa Visisosa Cemetery in Abra; and Balaoan in La Union. On Nov. 2, the group was in Batac cemetery.
The farmers also started a fund raising drive for their caravan on November 4 from Laoag to the Senate where the group plans to hold a vigil for 21 days beginning November 5 when deliberations on the sin tax bill start.
Gonong said their group has about 250,000 members in the tobacco-producing areas in northern Luzon and about six million family members would be affected once the sin tax is approved.—Eva Visperas
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