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One
down, more to go?
Close on
the heels of the recent sacking of Bureau of Internal
Revenue Commissioner Jose Buñag, President Arroyo
summoned members of her economic team, including
middle-level revenue officials, to Malacañang last week,
and told them in no uncertain terms to shape up or ship
out if they cannot meet revenue and deficit targets for
the year.
Among
the officials corralled by the Palace were Finance
Secretary Margarito Teves, Budget Secretary Rolando
Andaya Jr., Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales,
Bureau of Internal Revenue officer-in-charge Lilian
Hefti, district BIR and BOC heads, and other members of
the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC).
It was
apparently decided during the command conference that
the P63-billion deficit target for 2007 would be
maintained despite falling tax revenues to achieve a
balanced budget by 2008.
During the two-hour meeting, Mrs. Arroyo repeatedly
referred to Republic Act 9335, which provides for a
system of rewards and punishments for BIR and Bureau of
Customs (BOC) officials and employees. Those who fall
short of their respective revenue collection targets by
7.5 percent or higher would be dismissed from the
service.
Teves
has admitted that the government is likely to meet its
deficit targets for the first half of this year due to
poor tax collections. He described as “daunting” the
task of raising P1.1 trillion in revenues through tax
and nontax measures.
Preliminary figures indicate the government budget
deficit likely reached P37.7 billion in the first
semester, or P6.4 billion higher than the programmed
deficit of P31.3 billion for the period due largely to
collection shortfalls by the BIR and the BOC.
So the relevant question to ask is whether the
President’s marching orders to Teves and the other
members of her economic team would produce positive
results by year-end. If BIR and BOC collections so far
are any indication, however, our prognosis is that heads
will definitely roll if the lateral attrition law is
implemented without fear or favor.
One
reason the government cannot make ends meet, it seems,
is that there are certain offices that spend so much
taxpayers’ money with very little to show for it.
Take the
case of the Thirteenth Congress, whose two chambers
spent P12.5 billion but approved only 83 bills that
eventually became law, or an average expenditure of
P150.6 million for every piece of legislation. What
should concern taxpayers is that many of those laws are
of local application, that is, they seek to change the
name of a street or put up a national high school.
The huge
sum was spent for salaries, allowances and bonuses for
senators and congressmen, their staff, secretariat
personnel, and operational and travel expenses, but does
not include pork0barrel allocations of P70 million per
congressman and P200 million per senator.
The
paltry accomplishment of Congress considering the
gargantuan budget they spend like a drunken sailor—and
we suspect that is the situation in other government
offices despite the official reports patting themselves
for a job well done when the reality is that they have
minuscule achievements—tells us in so many words that
the budget deficit is not likely to be tamed at all
despite the best efforts of the internal revenue and
Customs bureaus.
*****
Shortchanged
Starting
this month, your electricity bill will reflect a P.047
per kilowatt-hour rate reduction. This is good news for
harassed consumers who must struggle on a daily basis to
make ends meet.
According to the National Power Corp., the rate cut is
due to the seasonality of electric rates and the full
recovery of components of the deferred accounting
adjustments (DAA) approved by the Energy Regulatory
Commission.
The rate
reduction also comes on the heels of the state-owned
power generation company’s long-delayed basic rate
adjustment filed on April 13, 2005, according to a
Napocor press statement.
If
that’s the case, therefore, then the rate cut should
have been made two years ago.
Early
this year, Napocor told the Joint Congressional Power
Commission and the Department of Finance that it had at
least P78.7 billion in forex gains from year-end 2004
(at P56.267 to $1 exchange rate) to year-end 2005 (which
closed at P53.067 to $1) and about P9.2 billion in
generation rate adjustment mechanism and incremental
currency rate adjustment DAAs.
In 2006,
Napocor earned more than P80 billion from forex gains
alone and is expected to reap another P80 billion this
year with the peso hovering at P46.50 to $1.
According to ERC chairman Rodolfo Albano, Napocor should
have filed from 2005-2006 a rate cut of more than P2 per
kwh on top of the P0.47 it had already approved.
The ERC
is investigating Napocor for alleged price manipulation
at the country’s wholesale electricity spot market (WESM)
after absolving the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corp. of the same charge. The probe into the
alleged price fixing was initiated in November 2006 by
the WESM operator, Philippine Electricity Spot Market
Corp., whose market surveillance committee submitted its
report to the ERC.
The
Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) mandates the
ERC to oversee the proper operation and penalize
anticompetitive behavior in the electricity market. The
ERC penalizes anticompetitive behavior and other
violations of the Epira and its implementing rules and
regulations with fines ranging from P50,000 to P50
million. The agency can also undertake price-control
measures to protect consumers.
The
Philippines has one of the highest electricity rates in
Asia, no thanks to the state-run Napocor. And if we go
by the paltry P0.47/kwh rate reduction starting this
month, it looks like the welfare of electricity
consumers is the last thing on the minds of Napocor
management. |
