Tracking the health interest of the Sin Tax Reform Law: thru the development and implementation of a Sin Tax Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

• Main Authors: Frances Rose Mamaril, Lindsley Jeremiah Villarante, Judith Mariano, Josefa Mina Nieva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Publishing 2018-03-01
• Series: Tobacco Induced Diseases
• Subjects: WCTOH
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/tid/Tracking-the-health-interest-of-the-Sin-Tax-Reform-Law-thru-the-development-and-implementation,84426,0,2.html

Background and challenges to implementation The Sin Tax Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework was developed in compliance with the Philippine Sin Tax Reform Law that was enacted to reform the existing law which has allowed the tobacco industry in the country to flourish. The reform law revised the multi-tiered taxation to a unitary scheme with adjusted rates and inflationary increase from 2018 onwards. The Sin Tax M&E follows a logical framework tracking the input of the budget earmarked for health, output or the commensurate product of the investment, intermediate outcomes which is decreased smoking prevalence and the final health outcomes which are decreased morbidity and mortality and financial risk protection. Intervention or response The challenge was to ensure an accurate data per results chain. The Department of Health and the Department of Budget and Management agreed on the manner by which input additions were tagged as contributed by STL. This results to tagging of new and expanded health services as Sin Tax contributed outputs correlated the intermediate outcomes of the Sin Tax Law. However, special studies on decreased morbidity and mortality are still needed to support its association to STL. Results and lessons learnt The DOH was able to publish on an annual basis the results of the M&E as basis for reporting to the Philippine Congress which ensured stakeholders that the intention of the STL for health were attained with the following effects: (1) increased health budget, (2) increased health service coverage, (3) availability of new health services, and (4) decreased smoking prevalence. Conclusions and key recommendations In a highly political environment with a strong tobacco lobby, having a clear M&E framework guides the government in tracking the law's health interest. We recommend countries who will pursue FCTC Article VI (Price and Tax Measures to Reduce the Demand for Tobacco) to come up with an M&E framework using a logical framework for easier understanding.