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Wednesday, November 25, 2020 Vol. 16 No. 48
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 16 pages |
10-MO TOURISM ARRIVALS, RECEIPTS PLUNGE BY 80%
Take from ‘sin’ products dips 8.5% on lockdowns
By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
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ONTINUING travel restrictions here and abroad to contain the spread of Covid-19 have pulled down inbound tourism arrivals by 80.6 percent to 1.32 million, from January to October 2020. Latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) obtained by the BusinessMirror, also showed tourism receipts fell 79.7 percent to just P81.05 billion, from P398.93 billion in the same period in 2019. Using data provided by the Bureau of Immigration, DOT reported that January 2020 recorded the highest number of international tourists in the country at 787,307, an increase of 8.84 percent from January 2019. “Arrivals started to slow down by the month of February to 418,126, a drop of 45.48 percent. Tourist traffic further plunged in March to 113,286, a decrease of 84.14 percent due to air travel restrictions. There are no arrivals from April to October due to the ban on inbound international tourist travel,” the DOT said. Similarly, for visitor receipts, January also posted the highest in the current year at some P47.02 billion, which was higher by 9.1 percent than January 2019. “Consequent to few visitor arrivals, February 2020 visitor receipts amounted to P27.12 billion, a decrease of 40.21 percent. March 2020 visitor receipts were at P6.91 billion, an 83.6-percent decline. No tourist spending was recorded in April to October,” the government agency noted. The DOT is currently focused on reviving domestic tourism due to continuing travel restrictions abroad, although foreigners seem to be keen still on vacationing in the Philippines. (See, “PHL pins hopes on ‘revenge travel’ in 2021,” in the BusinessMirror, Nov. 17, 2020.) In June, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat had brought up the idea of having travel bubbles or travel corridors between zero-Covid countries in Asia and zero-Covid destinations in the Philippines. This has yet to pan out, however. DOT spokesman and Undersecretary Benito C. Bengzon Jr. told ANC on Monday, the travel bubbles are currently between newly reopened domestic destinations. “We started with the Ridge and Reef Travel Corridor which involves Baguio City and neighboring provinces in Region I—Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangasinan. So essentially, the idea is to contain the movement of travelers within and among those areas that I mentioned.”
By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM
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PEOPLE from different walks of life are slowly starting to buy their Noche Buena products to avoid the holiday rush in supermarkets, such as this one in Las Piñas City. The Department of Trade and Industry has secured manufacturers’ assent to observe suggested retail prices (SRP) of the typical Christmas feast fare. The DTI said SRPs apply to both supermarkets and wet markets nationwide, unless specified. NONIE REYES
Moody’s to PHL: Watch virus-tied income gap By Bianca Cuaresma
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@BcuaresmaBM
HE global health crisis and its massive effect on the economy is expected to widen income disparity in Asia Pacific countries, and the Philippines was flagged to be among those who will struggle to address it. In a recent special report, international credit watcher Moody’s Investors Service warned that, de-
See “Tourism arrivals,” A2
PTESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.1920
spite the notable economic growth in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region years before the pandemic, the impact of the coronavirus health crisis will still exacerbate income inequality across the region. “The pandemic will make inequality starker, with governments increasingly resorting to fiscal policy to limit widening income gaps and protect human capital,” Moody’s said. Across the region, Moody’s cited the Philippines as one of the four sov-
ereigns that will struggle to address the looming greater inequality, thus, posing spillover risks to the country’s social and political climate. “Governments with weak social protection systems and low fiscal capacity to raise spending will face particular challenges in tackling income inequality. India, Indonesia and, to some extent, Malaysia and the Philippines stand out in this regard,” Moody’s said. The credit watcher warned that
job losses and income shocks, such as those brought about by the pandemic, typically disproportionately hurts the vulnerable and lowerincome groups. According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study, the Gini coefficient—or the statistical measure of income inequality within a nation— increases by close to 1.5 percentage points on average of five years after a pandemic hits. Continued on A2
‘Treasury must get back billions parked in PITC’
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HE Senate, acting on Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon’s disclosure Tuesday, is poised to open a full-blown inquiry into the operations of the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) where at least P33.4 billion in funds from different government agencies are parked. Senators are also weighing in on his suggestion to have the Executive compel all concerned agencies to return their unused funds to the Treasury, so these can be used for badly-needed initiatives in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. In a privilege speech on Tues-
day, Drilon divulged findings indicating that the PITC was transformed into a veritable piggy bank where huge idle funds were deposited to make it appear that the money had been obligated in order to avert returning the unused funds to the National Treasury at year-end. Drilon, a former Justice Secretary, indicated this is tantamount to a violation of Section 10 of the General Appropriations Act (GA A), also known as the National Budget Law, which requires the unspent expired appropriations to be returned to the National Treasury. Continued on A2
XCISE tax collections on “sin” products from January to September slid by 8.5 percent year-on-year as Covid-19-induced lockdowns dampened consumer demand. Preliminary data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed sin tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) for the nine-month period dropping to P193.7 billion this year from P211.8 billion in the same period last year. This, despite the 38.8-percent surge in excise tax take on sin products for the month of September to P29.2 billion this year from P21 billion in the same month last year. Finance Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa Habitan told the BusinessMirror this increase in September was prompted by “pent-up demand” that came after months of lockdown with liquor ban. For September this year, doubledigit growth rates were also recorded for the excise tax collections for tobacco and alcohol. Excise tax take for tobacco jumped by 66.4 percent to P19.1 billion in September this year from P11.5 billion in the same month a year ago. For the same month, excise tax collected from alcohol rose by 14.5 percent to P7.4 billion this year from P6.5 billion in 2019. On the other hand, the tax take from sweetened beverages in September sank by 14.2 percent to P2.6 billion this year from P3 billion last year. Habitan said the drop in the government’s excise tax collection for sweetened beverages showed a lesser public demand for soft drinks. There was no collection from electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) for September this year. For January-to-September period, sin tax collections from tobacco, alcohol and sweetened beverages were also lower this year compared to the same period a year ago. Among the three, the excise tax take in sweetened beverages posted the biggest decline. It dropped by 14.4 percent to P27.3 billion this year from P31.9 billion last year. It was followed by alcohol, which yielded only P51.7 billion from January to September, 9.3 percent lower than last year’s P57 billion. Excise tax take from tobacco reached P114.6 billion, 6.8 percent short of last year’s P123 billion. See “Sin products,” A2
n JAPAN 0.4610 n UK 64.2158 n HK 6.2169 n CHINA 7.3184 n SINGAPORE 35.8732 n AUSTRALIA 35.1079 n EU 57.0690 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.8512
Source: BSP (November 24, 2020)