MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Finance (DOF) expects Congress to pass before the end of the year a bill which would increase taxes on alcohol and electronic cigarette products, now that President Duterte has certified the bill as urgent. We know that the budget (bill) will take two and a half weeks, so that leaves another three weeks for the bill (SB 1074) to be passed. Last Aug. 20, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading its own version of the bill, as contained under House Bill 1026. However, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua earlier said the rates in the House-approved bill are lower than the proposed rates of the DOF. As a result, the projected revenue from the measure reached only P17 billion, half of the P33.5 billion expected from the original DOF proposal.

Source: Philippine Star November 13, 2019 16:00 UTC