MANILA – Amid calls to suspend the tax reform law in light of the rising fuel prices, a top official of the Department of Finance (DOF) said Tuesday that only the rich will benefit from halting the implementation of the reformed excise tax rate on petroleum products.
“Kung i-suspend ang TRAIN Law ang makikinabang talaga dito ay ang mayayaman kasi sila po ay may kotse at kung nagpa-full tank sila P2,000 o P3,000 ang kanilang ginagastos,” Finance undersecretary Karl Chua said in an interview with GMA News.
“At ‘yung mga mas mahirap ay sumasakay ng public transport kaya maliit po ang kanilang contribution,” Chua added.
The rising prices of petroleum products prompted calls to suspend the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which imposed an excise tax of P2.50 per liter on diesel and raised the levy on gasoline to P7 from P4.35 per liter.
The excise tax rate on diesel and gasoline will hike by P6 per liter and P10 per liter come 2020.
The Finance official reiterated that the contribution of TRAIN law to inflation was less than a half-percentage point on the 4.5 percent inflation rate in April.
Chua added that the tax reform law has a built-in mechanism that will automatically suspend the succeeding tranches of hikes in fuel excise taxes.
“Ang mungkahi namin ay ituloy ‘yung TRAIN pero tulungan sila para maibsan yung pagtaas ng presyo,” the Finance official said.
He added that the government is already working on distributing the unconditional cash transfers to the poorest households as well as the fuel vouchers for public utility vehicles. (GMA News)
