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DO WE need more and higher taxes? Among the revenue measures recently floated by the Department of Finance (DOF) and some members of Congress are the excise taxes on oil products, taxes on vanity products, electronics, sugar and salt, and even on the drug Viagra.
Shouldn’t the government first explore other avenues to raise revenues? More and higher taxes will only become added burdens to Filipino consumers, particularly the poor.
Instead of raising more regressive taxes, perhaps the revenue collection agencies under the DOF should increase their collection efficiency first. These agencies – Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs – should not rely mainly on indirect consumption taxes like the value-added tax and excise taxes, which would hit the poor the hardest because it is ultimately passed on to consumers regardless of their salaries. Burdening the poor even more while protecting the rich and big corporations is very regressive and characteristic of the anti-poor economic policies of past administrations.
DOF data showed that in 2012, BIR’s lost revenues amounted to P400 billion or four percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. On the other hand, also in 2012, the BOC had P200-billion revenue loss as well.
The inefficiency in revenue collection is glaring. In the Customs for example, the P200 billion is bigger than the revenues from the proposed oil excise tax. BIR, too, must collect the P400 billion. It has no right to impose more and higher taxes if it can’t even collect properly.
We hope that the DOF would listen and follow President Duterte’s instruction in August last year to lift anti-poor and gender-biased taxes and not add more tax burden to the public.
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