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IN a bid
to hasten the proposal for the government to use its tax
windfall from imported oil to subsidize the public’s
fuel and electricity consumption, an opposition
legislator pushed Thursday for a mere congressional
resolution, with Malacañang concurrence, to immediately
put it into action.
This
route will avoid putting the proposal through the
circuitous process of legislation, according to Partido
ng Masang Pilipino-United Opposition Rep. Rufus
Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro. “This proposal is the best
and most practical solution in our effort to mitigate
the rising cost of living in our country. I hope the
Senate and Malacañang will take the same path so that we
can implement this immediately,” Rodriguez said.
Meanwhile, the proposal to divert an estimated
P17-billion tax windfall to cushion the public’s pain
from soaring oil and power rates, as earlier raised by
Speaker Prospero Nograles, drew bipartisan support from
the House of Representatives.
Party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna said,
however, that while it was a good proposal, it would
just be a one-shot deal.
“If
ever, that proposal should be on top of the removal or
reduction of VAT [value-added tax] on oil and power,”
Casiño told the BusinessMirror.
Casino
and the militant bloc in the House earlier filed House
Bill 4126 seeking to remove VAT on electricity.
Nograles
raised the alternative after a Congressional Planning
and Budget Department (CPBD) study showed the government
stands to gain a windfall or additional P16.7 billion
from E-VAT as a result of the increased price of Dubai
oil.
Nograles
had directed the CPBD to find all available means to
provide the public relief from the rising cost of food,
fuel and electricity.
Such use
of the extra collection, said the Speaker, is easier to
manage and implement than his previous proposal to
remove E-VAT from residential users with P5,000 or less
in electric bills, since his new scheme will not disturb
government’s fiscal projections.
Under
Nograles’s proposal, the government’s extra profit of
around P16.7 billion from its E-VAT collection on
imported Dubai oil can translate into subsidies of
P6.5-billion for households using 500 KWH and below at
P1/KWH subsidy; P8.3 billion for diesel fuel at
P1.30/liter; and P1.9 billion for liquefied petroleum
gas (LPG) at P1/liter.
At the
Senate, the government was urged to consider removing
VAT on oil and oil products for public transport use
like jeepneys, buses and cargo trucks for basic goods
from the farm.
“The
loss to government on decreasing VAT collection with
this proposal would be minimal if we limit the VAT
exemption to buses, taxis, jeepneys and trucks used to
transport basic goods, if the status quo of not removing
VAT on oil and oil products is maintained,” Sen. Juan
Miguel Zubiri said Thursday.
Zubiri
said the government will stand to gain a windfall from
increasing VAT collection on news that world oil prices
have breached the $130 per barrel mark. Zubiri estimated
that the government stands to collect P143 Million a day
from VAT on oil.
“It is
ironic that government revenue will balloon to such a
degree but at the expense of the rest of the country.
All are affected, not just commuters who pay P1 more for
jeepney fares,” Zubiri said.
Congress, he said, is bent on helping raise the
take-home pay of workers in the government and private
sectors. However, the rising price of oil is “just
gobbling up whatever small amount we give them.”
Zubiri
said “the tariff reduction is not enough to help the
consumers especially with the prognosis that world oil
prices will hit the $200-per-barrel mark this year.”
Like the
party-list bloc in the House, Zubiri filed a bill
scrapping VAT on petroleum and petroleum products and on
power. “The law can be amended to respond to this
difficult situation. Government’s windfall is downright
disastrous for consumers.”
At the
very least, he said, the government must study the
imposition of a multiple-rate VAT if it just cannot
forgo its VAT collection from petroleum and petroleum
products. For example, diesel consumers like jeepney
drivers should be given more discounts.
Meanwhile, Party-list Rep. Florencio Noel of An-Waray
said there is no excuse for rejecting the Nograles
proposal because the P16.7-billion subsidy will not be
derived from existing revenue targets, and thus the
fiscal position won’t be disrupted.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Abraham Mitra of
Palawan also pledged support for the subsidy proposal,
and sees no reason why other legislators should not do
the same thing. (With Paul A. Isla) |
