UNDER fire for a tax reform program that labor groups blame for rising prices, President Rodrigo Duterte said Congress can always amend or suspend the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusivity Law.
“The law was enacted by Congress. I’ll leave it to Congress to decide whether or not to amend or suspend or modify the law,” Duterte said in a press conference Saturday night before leaving for South Korea.
“There is no value in giving … what I want because even if I say that we need it for our Build, Build, Build program, there is not much that I can do. And if Congress says we’ll just have to bite the bullet and go on, I also cannot do anything, if that is their decision,” the President said.
The Department of Finance earlier said TRAIN would generate funding for the administration’s P8.4-trillion Build, Build, Build infrastructure program, which aims to build more roads, bridges, airports, seaports, railways and irrigation projects to spur economic activities and create more jobs.
The projects include a 25-kilometer subway set to be built in Metro Manila that would decongest traffic in the metropolis, which one Japanese study says causes P3.5 billion in economic losses daily.
Duterte’s economic managers have bucked suggestions to suspend the tax reform measure.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the movement of world prices and not higher duties on fuel have caused the incessant increases in prices of oil and petroleum products.
He also called on Filipinos to be “less of a crybaby” in bearing the impact of TRAIN since the revenues it will generate will also be plowed back to the economy, thus helping the poor in the long run.
Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua also denied TRAIN was to blame for the spike in inflation in April.
He said TRAIN accounted for only 0.4 percentage points of the 4.5 percent inflation.
But Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano said Sunday the government can afford to suspend the excise tax on fuel, given the increase in revenue collection in the first four months this year.
“As crude oil prices rise dangerously in the world market, so did our revenues. Since we collected more than the projected values, we can afford to slash excise taxes to mitigate the damaging effects of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion [law] have on the people,” he said.
Citing data from the Department of Finance, Alejano said tax revenues have amounted to P927.4 billion, or P58.2 billion more than the target of P869.2 billion.
The Finance department earlier expressed willingness to cut the value-added tax rate under certain conditions.
Alejano said he believes such would simplify the process should the government decide to pursue it.
“Reduction in the VAT rate would not be a problem if the DoF is open to it. It is our priority to ease the burden of our Filipino people, especially the poor. The government must have the sense of urgency to do this,” he said.
“The government chooses to be passive and insensitive to the Filipino people when it should be actively seeking ways to ease the burden of the increasing cost of living,” he said.
He added that the planned provision for the unconditional cash transfer program would not be enough to address inflation.
In a radio interview, Senator Loren Legarda said TRAIN has already been factored into next year’s national budget.
“So if we are not to collect the taxes, where will we get the double pay of our policemen and free education?” Legarda said.
Earlier, Senator Grace Poe called on the government to release the guidelines for the implementation of social mitigating measures that will shield the poor from rising commodity prices resulting from TRAIN.
The government, Poe said, has yet to roll out these measures like giving fuel vouchers, additional 10-percent fare discount, and other subsidies to minimum-wage earners, unemployed, and the poorest 50 percent of the population.
She asked the concerned government agencies to immediately implement the social measures, which she said should be effected retroactively. With Macon Ramos-Araneta