Section 1. Declaration of emergency and policy; Emergency; Findings of fact;
Policy. — The existence of the sugar industry is threatened by the
imposition of the export taxes under the provisions of Public Act
Numbered One hundred twenty-seven of the Congress of the United States,
approved March twenty-four, nineteen hundred and thirty-four, as
amended by Public Act Numbered Three hundred, approved August seven,
nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and the eventual loss of its
preferential position in the United States market. An extensive
investigation of the facts relating to the industry has shown that
there is a great disparity in the proportion of the benefits being
received from the industry by each of its component elements. The
industry, as at present constituted, is in effect a monopoly on the
part of those actually engaged therein, and for this reason, and
because of its position in the national economy, is affected with a
public interest. The foregoing conditions have produced a state of
emergency in the industry, so that it becomes necessary to adopt
immediate measures to forestall its complete disruption. It, is
therefore, declared to be national policy to obtain a readjustment of
the benefits derived from the sugar industry by the competent elements
thereof — the mill, the landowner, the planter of the sugar cane, and
the laborers in the factory and in the field. It is, likewise, declared
to be the national policy to stabilize the sugar industry so as to
prepare it for the eventuality of the loss of its preferential position
in the United States market and the imposition of the export
taxes.
Section 2. Additional basic tax on proprietors or
operators of manufactured sugar; Parties subject to tax. — In addition
to the percentage tax on the gross receipts of proprietors or operators
of sugar mills, provided in section one hundred eighty-nine of the
National Internal Revenue Code, all proprietors or operators of mills
producing centrifugal sugar shall pay the basic tax of two centavos on
every picul of the total marketable sugar manufactured by them; and,
further, the additional tax to increase progressively at the rate of
five centavos on every picul of the total marketable sugar manufactured
for every one per centum by which the share of the mill in the sugar
manufactured from the sugar cane belonging to others exceeds forty but
does not exceed forty-five per centum of the total thereof and ten
centavos on every picul for each one per centum by which such share
exceeds forty-five per centum: Provided, That the aforesaid taxes shall
be collected from and paid by the proprietors or operators of sugar
mills exclusively, and any agreement under which the burden of the tax
or of a part thereof is directly or indirectly shifted to the planters
is declared unlawful: Provided, further, That the President of the
Philippines may, in the case of particular proprietors or operators of
sugar mills, waive, from year to year, any or all of the tax herein
levied, except the basic tax of two centavos, when, in view of the
peculiar conditions affecting such mills, the provisions of this Act
cannot be enforced as against them without being unduly oppressive
and/or confiscatory.
Section 3. Cession of sugarcane land, tax thereon. —
When any land devoted to the cultivation of sugar cane is ceded to
others by the owner or by the person in control thereof, for a
consideration, under a contract of lease or otherwise, such owner or
the person in control thereof shall pay a tax equivalent to the
difference between the money value of the rental or consideration
collected and the amount representing twenty per centum of the assessed
value of such land. 1
Section 4. Tax Collection; Rules and Regulations. —
The taxes provided in this Act shall be collected by the Collector of
Internal Revenue 2 under such rules and regulations as may be
prescribed by the Secretary of Finance; and it shall be the duty of
every person subject to the tax hereunder to make on the first day of
July, nineteen hundred and forty, and on the first day of July of each
year thereafter, a true and complete return of his total production or
of the total rental or consideration received by him during the
preceding twelve months, as well as the percentage of participation
given to the planters milling their sugar cane in their mills or the
assessed value of the sugar land given to others, and to pay the tax
due thereon within thirty days from said date.
Section 5. Applicability of Internal Revenue Code. —
All general and special penal provisions in Title XI of Commonwealth
Act Numbered Four hundred and sixty-six, otherwise known as the
National Internal Revenue Code, in so far as applicable and consistent
with the provisions of this Act, are extended and made applicable to
violations of any provisions of this Act or of the regulations to be
promulgated by the Secretary of Finance. All special and general
administrative provisions of law relative to returns, assessment,
remission, collection, and refund of internal-revenue taxes, and
consistent with the provisions of this Act, are made extensive and
applicable to the taxes herein imposed.
Section 6. All collections made under this Act shall
accrue to a special fund in the Philippine Treasury, to be known as the
"Sugar Adjustment and Stabilization Fund," and shall be paid out only
for any or all of the following purposes or to attain any or all of the
following objectives, as may be provided by law. 3
First, to place the sugar industry in a position to maintain itself,
despite the gradual loss of the preferential position of Philippine
sugar in the United States market, and ultimately to insure its
continued existence notwithstanding the loss of that market and the
consequent necessity of meeting competition in the free markets of the
world;
Second, to readjust the benefits derived from the sugar industry by all
of the component elements thereof — the mill, the landowner, the
planter of the sugar cane, and the laborers in the factory and in the
field — so that all might continue profitably to engage therein;
Third, to limit the production of sugar to areas more economically
suited to the production thereof; and
Fourth, to afford labor employed in the industry a living wage and to
improve their living and working conditions: Provided, That the
President of the Philippines may, until the adjournment of the next
regular session of the National Assembly, make the necessary
disbursements from the fund herein created (1) for the establishment
and operation of sugar experiment station or stations and the
undertaking of researches tax to increase the recoveries of the
centrifugal sugar factories with the view of reducing manufacturing
costs, (b) to produce and propagate higher yielding varieties of sugar
cane more adaptable to different district conditions in the
Philippines, (c) to lower the costs of raising sugar cane, (d) to
improve the burning quality of denatured alcohol from molasses for
motor fuel, (e) to determine the possibility of utilizing the other
by-products of the industry, (f) to determine what crop or crops are
suitable for rotation and for the utilization of excess cane lands, and
(g) on other problems the solution of which would help rehabilitate and
stabilize the industry, and (2) for the improvement of living and
working conditions in sugar mills and sugar plantations, authorizing
him to organize the necessary agency or agencies to take charge of the
expenditure and allocation of said funds to carry out the purposes
hereinbefore enumerated, and, likewise, authorizing the disbursement
from the fund herein created of the necessary amount or amounts needed
for salaries, wages, traveling expenses, equipment, and other sundry
expenses of said agency or agencies.
Section 7. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part
of this Act shall be adjudged by any Court of competent jurisdiction to
be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the
remainder of said Act, but shall be confined in its operation to the
clause, sentence, paragraph, or part thereof directly involved in the
controversy.
Section 8. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Footnotes
* As amended by RA 1583. See Lutz v. Araneta,
98 Phil. 148.
1. Word in bold in the text above is an
amendment introduced by RA 1583, section 1, approved June 16, 1956.
Statutory History of section 3:
Original text —
Sec. 3. When
any land devoted to the cultivation of sugar cane is ceded to others by
the owner or by the person in control thereof, for a consideration,
under a contract of lease or otherwise, such owner or the person in
control thereof shall pay a tax equivalent to the difference between
the money value of the rental or consideration collected and the amount
representing [twelve] per centum of the assessed value of such land.
(Ed. Note: Word in brackets was deleted in RA 1583, supra.)
2. Now Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
3. See RA 632, section 16-A.
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