烟草在线据《马尼拉公报》报道编译　　菲律宾当地的低价卷烟制造商之一Mighty公司（MC），1月8日宣布将从吕宋岛北部和该国其他地区的烟农手中购买1000万公斤、价值数百万比索的烟草产品。

　　Mighty公司的执行副总裁奥斯卡·P.巴里恩托斯在发给国家烟草管理局局长埃德加多·D.萨拉戈萨的一封正式的意向书中说，该公司将从农民手中购买的烟叶比2013年公司收购的500万公斤要多一倍以上。

　　“这是为了向烟农保证我们希望提供帮助的意愿，以回应烟草业市场领导者发表的要减产的报告，”一位退休的地区审判法庭法官巴里恩托斯说。

　　这封意向书实际上破除了批评者的指控，即Mighty公司一直以低价从外国进口原料，因此它不再购买当地农民的烟叶。

　　巴里恩托斯说，他们的批评者采用假情报，使用令人费解的数据企图破坏Mighty公司市场份额的巨大增长。

　　Mighty公司的市场份额从2012年的3%攀升至2013年低价卷烟品牌的近20%，导致支付了82亿比索的消费税。

　　据巴里恩托斯说，在政府有效实施《共和法案10352》，即罪恶税法律之后，他们的市场份额迅速提高，该法案拉平了价值数十亿比索、由菲莫和福川烟草公司控制的烟草行业的竞争环境。该法花了14年才得以通过，并且由总统阿基诺三世认定为紧急法案，引起了大量吸烟者从昂贵的优质和次优品牌，转向低价位卷烟。

　　它还导致一些烟民因为经济原因戒烟了，从而验证了卫生局的估计，即罪恶税法将减少菲律宾的吸烟者数量。

　　2013年年底前，国内税务署税收的总税收取得增长，从2012年的604亿比索增长到2013年的916亿比索。在2013年的11个月中征收的所有罪恶税中，卷烟税占61.6%，即将近三分之二。

　　Mighty公司，在2012年罪恶税生效之前，只是一个很小的市场参与者，仅有可怜的3%的市场份额，支付5亿比索的消费税，而在罪恶税生效后，该公司在2013年贡献了82亿比索的税款，破除了对它的批评，即认为它涉嫌技术性走私和逃税。

Philippines: Mighty Corp. to Buy More Tobacco from Local Farmers

　　Mighty Corporation (MC), one of the country's local producers of low-priced cigarettes, yesterday announced it will buy 10 million kilograms of tobacco products worth millions of pesos from farmers in Northern Luzon and elsewhere in the country.

　　In an official letter of intent he sent to National Tobacco Administrator Edgardo D. Zaragoza, MC Executive Vice President Oscar P. Barrientos said it is buying tobacco from farmers 100 percent more than the five million kilograms his firm bought in 2013.
"This is to assure our tobacco farmers of our willingness to help in response to the published report of the market leader in the tobacco industry to lessen production this year," Barrientos, a retired regional trial court judge, said.

　　The letter of intent, in effect, debunked critics' allegations that MC has been importing raw materials from foreign countries at low prices and therefore it is no longer buying tobacco from local farmers.

　　Barrientos said their critics have been resorting to a disinformation campaign using convoluted data in an effort to undermine Mighty's tremendous increase of its market shares.

　　MC's market shares surged to almost 20 percent of the low-priced cigarette brands last year from three percent the previous year, resulting to the payment P8.2 billion in excise taxes.

　　According to Barrientos, their market shares shot up after the government effectively implemented Republic Act 10352, otherwise known as the Sin Tax Law that leveled the playing field in the multibillion-peso tobacco industry which was controlled by Philip Morris and Fortune Tobacco. The new law that took 14 years to pass and certified as urgent by President Aquino III caused a tremendous migration of smokers from the expensive premium and sub-premium brands to low-priced cigarettes.

　　It also resulted to some smokers, because of economic reason, to simply quit the vice and thus validated health authorities estimate that the sin tax law would result to the decrease of the number of smokers in the country.

　　Before the end of 2013, total tax collection by the BIR hit an all time increase of P91.6 billion from P60.4 billion in 2012. Taxes from cigarettes represented 61.6 percent or almost two thirds of all sin tax collection for 11 months of 2013.

　　Mighty Corp., then a minor player with a measly three percent of the market share with only P500 million in excise tax payments before the sin tax law took effect in 2012, contributed P8.2 billion in tax payments in 2013, discrediting its critics that it had allegedly committed technical smuggling and tax evasion. Enditem