Mighty Corp helped the farmers from their CSR program

The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) chief Edgardo Zaragoza has welcomed the assistance provided to tobacco farmers by Mighty Corp, a local cigarrete company, officials said.

“The more players dealing directly with the farmers, the better and merrier. This is a big boost to the tobacco industry,” Zaragoza said.

He said Mighty’s social outreach programs would increase the assistance provided to farmers and their families and “we hope this would encourage other cigarette industry players to do the same.”

Mighty has provided 90 diesel-fed water pumps and 16 power tillers to farmers in the provinces of Abra, Ilocs Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Isabela and Cagyan, the country’s top producers of yellow leaf, the variety used for cigarettes. Tobacco thrives even without rainfall and irrigation systems.

Mighty said it would buy 10 million kilograms of tobacco leaves, one fifth of the industry’s total production. It has also provided 100 scholarships to high school graduate  children of  tobacco farmers.

Zaragoza said the NTA was working on the implementing rules for the excise taxes on cigarettes “to ensure that the taxes will directly benefit tobacco farmers.”

“In 2003, excise tax collection from tobacco increasaed by almost P35 billion. From P32 billion in 2012, it became P67 billion in 2013,” Zaragoza said.

The increase in excise taxes followed the enactment in December 2012 of the Sin Tax Reform Law, which took effect in January 2013 and levies higher taxes on cigarettes and liquor.