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RESPONDING to lawmakers objecting to the huge Malacañang-ordered
2,600-percent increase in public-utility vehicle (PUV)
taxes, the government—while not retreating from the
target percentage increase—is considering imposing it
gradually over several years.
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza said Tuesday
the public-utility sector has “no objection per se”
against it, only on how it is to be carried out. “Right
now, they are discussing the manner of implementing this
on a graduated basis. I believe there is no objection as
far as the tax itself is concerned.”
He added
the “trend” of ongoing discussions with public transport
groups is “there will be a smaller percentage that will
be implemented, and the balance will be negotiated.”
Senate
Majority Leader Francisco Pangilinan said the planned
tax hike is “arbitrary, unjust, whimsical, oppressive;
it is everything that a tax law should not be.”
As this
developed, Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis
filed a resolution calling on the House Committee on
Ways and Means and the Committee on Transportation and
Communications to conduct an immediate joint inquiry on
the proposed hiked PUV tax.
Beltran
said the people must know “how the Department of Finance
and the Bureau of Internal Revenue [BIR] decided on the
percentage increase and how both agencies determined
that taxi, jeepney, and bus operators and drivers will
be able to pay the exorbitant new tax.”
After
warning of its potential domino effect on transport
operators and commuters, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson filed a
resolution seeking a thorough Senate review of the plan.
In
Senate Resolution 58, Lacson invoked the oversight
function of the Senate to review the BIR’s proposed tax
hike on public-utility operators, with the aim of
striking a balance between the concerns of the
government and the transport sector.
“The one
who will ultimately bear the brunt of this tax hike are
the riding public as this will undoubtedly result in
fare increases and consequent rise in the price of basic
commodities,” Lacson noted in his resolution.
While
the present taxes are indeed based on prices in 1978,
imposing such a big increase so suddenly will pose an
“undue burden” on operators already staggering under the
burden of fuel, spare parts and even extortion by
unscrupulous law enforcers, he said.
Citing
figures reaching his office, Lacson said the revenue
regulation effectively increases the present tax on
jeeps, taxis and buses by as much as 2,600 percent.
Operators of buses carrying 50 or more passengers may
have to pay from the present P864 to P23,652.
What is
unconscionable, Lacson said, is that the planned
increase was “arrived at hastily” just to meet the
deficit target by the end of the year. (With F.
Marasigan) |
