http://www.mb.com.ph/oxford-economics-wants-debate-with-seatca/
United Kingdom (UK)-based Oxford Economics wants a debate with health advocates to defend its assessment that illicit cigarette trade in the Philippines had proliferated following the enactment of the new excise tax regime.
In a briefing, Oliver Salmon, Oxford Economics senior economist for Asia defended his group’s series of reports about illicit cigarette trade in the Philippines and its impact on government revenue and legitimate industry players.
According to Salmon, Oxford Economics’ annual illicit indicator report for Asia is an independent study despite being funded by cigarette companies.
“We’ve always maintained full academic control, at the end of the day, the figures in front have our name on it, no one else is,” Salmon told reporters in a briefing in Hong Kong.
“It’s our reputation, our credibility with which this figures go out into the public, so we’ll never put anything out there that as a company, we aren’t fully satisfied with the credibility,” he added.
Earlier, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca) rejected the research report by Oxford Economics and Washington D.C.-based International Tax and Investment Centre (ITIC) due to funding issues.
“In terms of how we are funded, we’d like to think we are very open, within the report, we are very upfront about the conditions under which we have been employed to conduct this research, so we’ve never tried to hide the fact about who funded this report,” Salmon said.
He also disclosed that Oxford Economics and ITIC had tried to hold dialogues with Seatca since 2013 and discuss the issues raised by tobacco control advocates.
“We have tried to actively engage Seatca. Our colleagues and partners, ITIC, have tried to actively engage Seatca, in order to have a conversation and discuss the issues,” Salmon said.
“Clearly, we both agree that illicit trade is an issue in the Asian region, but specifically in the Philippines, and we want to collaborate where possible,” he added.
Salmon also said that Oxford Economics is prepared to debate with people who disagree with the report.
“We’re happy to be open, we’re happy to debate the subject with people who disagree with us. We welcome this kind of conversation, and we hope we can continue to have that debate with Seatca going forward,” the economist said.
“When we spoke at the beginning of the presentation, I wanted to be upfront about the methodology, it has a very detailed methodology,” he added.
According to Oxford Economics, government tax loss from illicit consumption of cigarettes rose to about P22.5 billion last year, adding “one in every five cigarettes [in the Philippines] originated from illegal channels.