Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte has filed a bill aiming to reduce the impact of the increasing costs of living on ordinary Filipinos via an automatic fuel tax cut.
Villafuerte pressed for the passage of House Bill (HB) 5176 which amends Section 148 of the National Internal Revenue Code to provide for “the automatic suspension of the excise tax on regular gasoline, unleaded premium gasoline, and diesel fuel oil whenever the Dubai crude oil price based on MOPS averages $80 or more per barrel over the three months before the proposed suspension of the tax collection.”
“This tax suspension aims to bring down the cost of fuel to provide instant relief to the Filipino people and to shield them from further adversities that may be caused by unforeseen economic downturns,” Villafuerte said.
He appealed to the House committee on ways and means chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda to consider HB 5176. The bill was referred to the committee last year.
“Geopolitical conflicts and other developments in world markets have been driving up the cost of petroleum products, which, in turn, have jacked up transportation expenses and food prices responsible for the seemingly unending elevated inflation that now threatens to slow the global economy and possibly even lead to a recession in most parts of the world,” Villafuerte said.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), inflation soared to a 14-year record of 8.1 percent last December, the highest since the 9.1 percent clip in 2008—the year of the global financial crisis—and the ninth consecutive month in 2022 that the pace of commodity price hikes breached the target range of 2 percent to 4 percent set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
PSA data showed the continued inflation spike last month resulted from the higher price index for electricity, vegetables, restaurant services, and private and public transport.
From an average per-barrel cost of about $80 at the onset of 2022, the global benchmark Brent rate went up to as high as $139.13 at one point last year, and raised speculations that local fuel prices could hit P100 a liter.
Last year’s peak in pump prices were at P81.02 per liter of gasoline, P83.73 for diesel and P84.78 for kerosene.
“We need to come up with a surefire way to cushion the economic impact on ordinary Filipino consumers of the rollercoaster ride in the pump prices of diesel and gasoline,” he said, “and the most feasible means to do this is through the permanent suspension of the excise tax imposed on petroleum products whenever the global rate hits the TRAIN-set threshold of $80 per barrel over a three-month period.”
Villafuerte said, “This is the best way for Malacañan Palace and the 19th Congress to take the edge off the economic shock inflicted on our consumers by the never-ending rise in the cost of living, especially now when Filipinos are barely recovering from the almost three-year global economic and health crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”