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THE
National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) is
concerned that around 6.4 million Filipino families
earning a total gross income of P10,000 and below a
month will become highly susceptible to high oil and
food prices.
Neda
Acting Director General Augusto Santos said there are
4.7 million families earning a total gross income of
P10,000 a month, while 1.7 million families are
considered food-poor and are earning less than P10,000 a
month.
Santos
said that based on National Statistics Office (NSO)
estimates, the Filipino families’ average size is five
for each family. The Neda said this means a total of 32
million Filipinos will be severely affected by high
commodity prices.
If food
prices, particularly rice, increase further, he said the
effect would become worse because 50 percent of the
income of families goes to food and 50 percent of the
food budget is allotted to rice.
To avoid
being susceptible to high prices, the Neda chief said
families need to earn a gross income of around P13,000
to P14,000 a month, or a gross family income of P156,000
to P168,000 per year.
“Those
families earning P13,000 to P14,000 a month [can fight
for survival],” he told reporters Wednesday.
For this
year, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC)
is projecting inflation to reach 5.5 percent to 6.5
percent, mainly due to high oil prices. Measures such as
subsidies,
Santos
said, would be crucial since the new inflation target
for 2008 is higher than the 3 percent to 5 percent
projected by the DBCC in December.
Besides
pushing back its target to balance the budget to 2010,
he earlier said that among the measures the government
is doing to mitigate high food prices is to increase the
budget for the rice self-sufficiency master plan to P55
billion.
Santos
said the increase in the amount, initially pegged at
P43.7 billion, was due to an increase in the provision
to build more irrigation facilities.
With
this, he said the allotment for irrigation accounts for
60 percent of the total amount. The rice
self-sufficiency master plan will be implemented from
2008 to 2010.
Santos
said the plan will immediately be submitted to the Neda
Board for final approval. The Neda Board is the highest
policymaking body of the agency and is chaired by the
President.
Other
measures include the plan to exempt minimum-wage earners
from paying tax, which was recently approved by
Congress. The bill pending in Congress also increased
tax exemptions of professionals to P50,000. |
