Senator Bam Aquino has called on his colleagues in the Senate to revisit the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act as
Filipinos deal with high prices of goods and services.
He noted that the spike in prices was due to the additional excise tax on petroleum products and the country’s inflation rate shooting up to 4.3 percent in March.
In his Senate Resolution No. 704, Aquino wants the appropriate Senate committees tolook into TRAIN’s inflationary impact and effect on the economy.
He underscored the need to take another look at the government’s tax reform program amid the rise in prices due to the imposition of additional excise tax on fuel.
He pointed out that Congress approved the inclusion of increased excise taxes in the TRAIN Law due to assurance by the Department of Finance that its impact on inflation would not be more than 0.7 percent.
However, the Philippine Statistics Authority said that the inflation rate for March rose to 4.3 percent, way above the government’s forecast of 2 to 4 percent.
Earlier, Aquino filed Senate Resolution No. 597, urging a Senate committee to scrutinize the implementation of the unconditional cash transfer to ensure that it is sufficient to cover the increase in prices of goods and other services. Macon Ramos Araneta