[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’‘TRAIN BILL ANTI-POOR’ Bayan-Negros slams proposed tax reform ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RANIE AZUE
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=’18’ font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BACOLOD City – The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill will not benefit the majority of Filipinos, but will further burden them, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Negros Island (Bayan-Negros).
Bayan-Negros secretary-general Michael dela Concepcion said the exemption of taxable income of wage earners does not benefit the poor since the “revenue loss” under the TRAIN bill “will be recovered triple folds through the imposition of excise taxes in almost all commodities.”
Dela Concepcion added that minimum wage earners will “not get anything” from the adjusted income tax exemption.
The present taxation policy already exempts them from paying certain taxes also included in the TRAIN bill, dela Concepcion said.
He also said the broadened value-added tax on fuel and other essential products will have a “drastic effect” on low-income earners for it will also result to the increase in the prices of electricity, public transport fare and basic commodities, among others.
“They are lying in their teeth – particularly President Rodrigo Duterte – when they claimed the new tax reform package will mean revenue loss to the government,” dela Concepcion stressed.
The TRAIN bill was designed to generate more revenues for the government, according to him.
Dela Concepcion claimed that the money generated from the new taxation policy will be used by Duterte for the extension of martial law in Mindanao and the war against rebel groups that he earlier classified as terrorists.
He added that the martial law extension in Mindanao is “Duterte’s experiment.”
Duterte wants to see the initial reaction of the people to “his long-time dream” of placing the entire country under martial law, dela Concepcion said.
Dela Concepcion warned that the martial law extension in Mindanao will be “bloodier.” He said thousands of lumads in the region will be displaced, too./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
