Effect of Excise Tax on Car Prices in the Philippines in 2018

The bicameral committee of the Senate and Congress has finally approved a reconciled proposal for the excise tax beginning 2018.

For cars, the committee approved a four-tier scheme as follows

4%   - for cars costing up to PhP 600,000

10% - for cars over PhP 600k up to PhP 1 Million

20% - for cars over PhP 1 Million to PhP 4 Million

50% - for cars over PhP 4 Million

It's a simpler scheme than the current one with fixed and marginal taxes.

The more important question is : how will it impact car prices?

Below is a graphical summary, showing increases (or decreases) based on current retail prices (as of Dec 18, 2017).

If  you're in the market for a car in the PhP 2.5 Million to PhP 7.0 Million range, it might be worth waiting for January. Otherwise, there's a few more days in 2017 if you're eyeing a car outside this range.