By Fel V. Maragay

SENATORS back changes in the taxation of cigarets and liquor, or the so-called sin taxes, but differ on how it should be done.

?We really need to adjust the tax on sin products provided that the increase will not be too big,? Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said in a radio interview yesterday, two days after the Finance Department proposed higher taxes on cigarettes and alcohol products to raise tax collections by P120 billion over the next three years.

?The well-to-do will have to pay the bill for the country precisely because they are blessed by the Lord and our society to have a better life. They must bear a greater sacrifice by paying higher taxes,? Enrile said.

He noted that the government must raise value-added tax rates because it was running out of assets to sell. The last asset it sold off was its 40-percent stake in Petron Corp., and for which it was paid P25 billion.

But Senator Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means, opposed higher cigarette and liquor taxes. Instead, he pushed for a rate restructuring to remove inequities.

Lacson recalled that he voted against the increase in taxes on liquor and cigarets when it was passed by the Senate in the l3th Congress.

He said he preferred to simplify those taxes to ensure a level playing field.

?It is very clear in the Constitution that taxes should be equitable, fair and just, but this is not being followed. The foregone revenues are too big. There are companies being unduly favored,? Lacson said.

The Finance Department and Internal Revenue had conflicting interpretations of the tax classification of cigarets two years ago, Lacson said, referring to the case of British-American Tobacco, which enjoyed a lower tax rate.

Senator Mar Roxas favors a reduction of value-added taxes so that consumers could retain more of their income and boost their purchasing power.

Roxas said reducing the value-added tax by 2 percentage points would cause a 17-percent loss in the government?s P80-billion take from consumption taxes, but he claimed consumers would have more money to spend, and that would boost the economy.

The most efficient and quickest way to boost the domestic economy was by giving a tax rebate, and about two million fixed-income workers would benefit from a P5,000 rebate that they may use to buy consumer products and increase the money in circulation, he said.

Malaca?ang has yet to decide on the Finance Department proposal to increase sin taxes and raise much-needed revenues.

Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez Jr. said President Arroyo remained focused on improving tax collection and clamping down on smuggling.