PH ranks high on cigarette tax policy

THE Philippines received the highest score among its peers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in an independent global study that rated cigarette tax policy performance over a six-year period from 2012 to 2018.

A 2020 Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Scorecard study involving cigarette taxation in more than 170 countries, said the Philippines was among the countries "with the greatest improvement in cigarette tax policy" resulting from "the simplification of previously complicated tiered cigarette excise tax structures, accompanied by large tax increases."