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BY JOHNNY NOVERA
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January 16, 2018
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THE LAW on Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion otherwise known as TRAIN recently passed by Congress and signed by the President aimed to slow down inflation with tax exemption for beneficiaries.
In a news forum in Quezon City last week, IBON Foundation executive director Sonny Africa said the claim of the Department of Finance (DOF) that six to seven million Filipinos will benefit from the exemption in the TRAIN law is “very deceitful.”
Mr. Africa claims that the tax reform law was actually a scheme to avoid taxing the rich at the expense of the poor.
The poorest families, the ordinary man on the street, will henceforth be paying indirect consumption taxes due to higher priced goods and services.
Now it is happening. Right on the first week of its implementation this new year the law accomplished the opposite of its purpose. Instead of slowing down inflation, prices of rice, fish, vegetables and other food products in the market and grocery stores suddenly increased!
Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III had downplayed the inflationary impact of the TRAIN law. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) also said the law will have “minimal effects” on the prices of prime commodities.
Felipe Medalla, member of the Monetary Board of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, likewise said TRAIN will be anti-inflationary because infrastructure projects that it is expected to fund “would reduce transportation costs and increase productivity.”
Well, you have the opinion of the financial experts of the Duterte Administration. We wish we can get your side on what is happening to you and your families with these economic changes in our community.
On the political front, Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist and former Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban reports that our two leaders in Congress, namely, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, have agreed to change our Charter (Cha-cha) via a constituent assembly Con-Ass) but they differed on its implementation.
Senate President Pimentel proposed that the mid-term elections will proceed and allow the Con-Ass about a year to finish its work. In contrast, Speaker Alvarez wants the Con-Ass to fast-track its work and have the draft constitution voted upon in a plebiscite to coincide with the barangay elections in May this year.
On the voting procedure, the Senate believes that each chamber should vote separately as in passing ordinary legislation while the Speaker is for a joint vote.
Which side is yours?
Edilberto de Jesus who writes the column “Business Matters” in the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently cited figures that even if they retained all the 2015 revenues they raised, 88 or 95 percent of 93 provinces in our country, 87 or 57 percent of 152 cities, and 1,937 or 95 percent of 2,044 municipalities could not support even half of their operating costs. (Underlining ours for emphasis)
There will be a serious dislocation in our economy if our shift to federalism is rushed without resolving the inadequate income figures of the big majority of our cities and provinces!
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Historical Quote of the Week: “The first school for boys in the Philippines was established in Tigbauan, Iloilo, by famous Jesuit priest Pedro Chirino in 1592.” (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
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