THE GOVERNMENT’S sin tax (excise tax) collection on cigarettes and vapor products, or e-cigarettes, from January to September this year has increased to P106 billion and P2 billion compared to last year’s figures, according to former Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Romeo Lumagui in a recent briefing before the House ways and means panel.
“We’ve seen our comparative collections from January to September 2025 compared with the year 2024, and we’ve seen an increase of about more than P20 billion [on our sin tax collection on cigarettes]. From P84-billion collection from excise tax on tobacco products last year, we were able to collect about P106 billion for this year,” Lumagui said.
He said such increases were a result of BIR’s “aggressive enforcement activities in connection with excisable articles.”
However, the panel’s chair, Marikina’s Rep. Romero Quimbo, said the amount of excise tax collection on tobacco products is still far from the peak P170-billion collection in 2021.
Quimbo then quizzed Lumagui: “What revisions in the law [the 2012 Sin Tax law] are needed to make tax collection, tax administration better, particularly for sin taxes?”
Lumagui responded by saying that lower taxes on vape products actually prompted the public to shift to e-cigarettes rather than quitting smoking altogether.
Quimbo said that as a middle ground, the excise tax on vapor and tobacco products should be risk-based, but a unitary tax on vapor products should be non-negotiable.
Lumagui agreed with Quimbo, saying, “The remedy is really a simplified system with respect to all of these products because if you have different trades and different categories, the chances of mere misdeclaration and it’s very difficult for our enforcement activities to monitor all of these details. That [unitary tax for vapor products] would be very helpful, Mr. Chair.”
Lamugui made the presentation on Nov. 11, or a day before Malacañang announced that he was being replaced by Finance Undersecretary Charlito Mendoza. (GMA Integrated News)
