The Finance Department said Monday the budget for senior citizens will more than double to P18 billion in 2017 to benefit 3 million Filipinos aged 60 years and above.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said senior citizens would continue to receive financial assistance from the Duterte administration, despite the plan to lift the value added tax exemptions on selected items for senior citizens.
The 2017 proposed national budget showed allocation for indigent senior citizens would double from P8.71 billion in 2016 to P17.94 billion next year. The budget is mainly for “transparent and targeted” subsidies for them.
Dominguez said for 2017, the amount for social pension of seniors doubled because of expanded coverage.
He said from the current scheme where those in ages 77 years and above were the ones qualified for the social pension benefit, the new administration would reduce the age cap at 60 years old.
Republic Act 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, mandates a P500 social pension every month for all indigent senior citizens.
The budget hike plan, once approved by Congress, will increase the number of elderly-beneficiaries from the current 1.4 million to 2.8 million in 2017.
Dominguez said the benefits enjoyed by senior citizens would not be removed but would only be amended to benefit the neediest, ensuring that subsidies went to the truly vulnerable ones.
He said the government planned to replace senior citizens’ exemption from the 12-percent value added tax with direct subsidies that would benefit senior citizens belonging to the poorest of the poor.
“For the vulnerable sectors of society who would be affected by the lifting of some of the VAT exemptions, we would design a subsidy system similar to the CCT [conditional cash transfer program], which is more transparent and targeted,” he said.
The allocation for social protection programs under President Duterte’s proposed budget was raised to P169.63 billion, up 6.3 percent from P159.55 billion under the 2016 GAA, according to the Budget Department.
The proposed tax reform program being crafted by the Finance Department aims to raise enough revenues to fund the social protection programs for the poorest of the poor.
The agency also said the VAT exemption on unprocessed food and medicines now enjoyed by seniors would remain intact.