Essay On Sin Tax

Gifford (1997) stated that "Sin tax in modern economic terms, are externality taxes, taxes designed to reduce behavior which is known to be 'harmful to society.” It can be categorized as excise taxes on commodities pondered to be morally threatening in some ways. It is an excise tax because its objectives are to make consumers lose interest in buying by imposing taxes on goods that are known to be harmful and lethal such as cigarettes and liquor or activities like gambling (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2012). The country may have prohibition but we still reason out of such consumption as something to be moderated and regulated.

Technically the sin tax is somewhat slightly restrictive to the purchasing consumption of those goods. This situation gives the government an opportunity to raise revenues without jeopardizing its popularity that much. (Matton and Wetmore, 2015) Sin taxes are envisioned in discouraging users’ participation in such behaviors that society considers undesirable while at the same time raise revenues to help in compensating society for cost incurred from such behaviors. Sin taxes are also a case of a win-win scenario. Economics dictates that sin taxes are marginally more beneficial to society perhaps a reflection of why it is popular to most people.

Prasad (2010) argued that few people will fight for low taxes on their booze the

The law is proven to be a success. Within the first year, they raised more than USD$1.2 billion and allowed the Philippines to provide health care to an additional 14 million families or roughly 45 million Filipinos. Four years ago, roughly 74% of the population was enrolled in PhilHealth, the national health insurance program. Today, 82% of the roughly 100 million people living in the Philippines are covered. Furthermore, actual tax collections have always exceeded projected collections - a mark of success in generating