ILOILO City – Citing the increasing prices of commodities that hurt consumers, the Senate committee on public services has recommended the suspension of the excise tax on fuel.
“Dapat pag-aralan ang pagpapaliban sa full implementation ng TRAIN Law, partikular sa fuel excise tax, dahil lahat ng produkto ay apektado,” said Sen. Grace Poe, the committee chairperson.
The committee held a hearing here yesterday on the effects of Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) particularly on fuel, water, electricity, and transportation.
Consumer groups in Western Visayas blamed the TRAIN Law for the increasing fuel costs, which they said resulted to higher commodity prices.
The TRAIN Law imposed a P2.50 per liter excise tax on diesel which was previously untaxed.
Gasoline, on the other hand, increased its excise tax from P3.90 per L to P7 per liter.
Since December last year pump prices increased by 30 percent or at least P10 for diesel and gasoline, the groups told Poe’s committee.
The region also registered price surges in rice (P5 per kilo), pork (P15 per kilo) and fish (P20 per kilo).
According to the Scrap the TRAIN Network-Panay, excise taxes are also imposed on caloric and non-caloric sweeteners (P6 per liter) and on high fructose corn syrup (P12 per liter) beverages.
Sweetened beverages like fruit juices, carbonated drinks, flavored water, energy and sports drinks, and other drinks that with sugar content are also subject to tax, it added.
“Hihilingin natin sa Department of Finance at sa ibang ahensya ng gobyerno na pag-aralang mabuti ang suspension ng excise taxes sa fuel dahil sa walang humpay na pagtaas ng presyo ng produktong petrolyo,” said Poe.
According to Poe, Sen. Bam Aquino actually proposed an amendment to the TRAIN Law – the automatic suspension of the excise tax if the inflation rate keeps surging.
But since amending the law may take time, Poe said, “‘Yung immediate is just the suspension right now. Pwede naman na administrative lang ‘yun eh.”
Since the law’s implementation in January this year, the average price increase has been P8.07 per liter for gasoline, P8.95 for diesel and P9.15 per liter of kerosene.
Poe’s committee was also told farmers have to fork in an additional P2,600 a month and a worker has to contend with additional P3,640 after the passage of the TRAIN Law.
Calls for fuel excise tax suspension snowballed as consumer prices rose 4.5 percent in April compared to a year ago, setting its fastest pace in over five years.
Sen. Nancy Binay who was present at yesterday’s hearing said a safety net scrapped from the final version of the TRAIN Law that was approved may be reintroduced – when the inflation rate reaches four percent, the excise tax is automatically suspended.
For the meantime, said Binay, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Energy must hasten “social mitigating measures” such as the Unconditional Cash Transfer Program.
“Medyo mabagal ang pag-distribute ng cash transfer cards,” said Binay.
For his part, Sen. JV Ejercito called for the suspension not of the excise tax on fuel only but of the TRAIN Law itself.
“Our economic managers should seriously review the TRAIN Law. They should assess whether the increase in inflation is still manageable or not,” he said.
Ejercito said he voted in favor of the TRAIN Law’s approval hoping it would generate more funds to finance government infrastructure programs.
“Kaya lang right now major infrastructure projects are not going as planned. Medyo may delay,” said Ejercito./PN
