VAT keeping RP rice, oil among cheapest in region--Arroyo
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:36:00 07/18/2008
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday continued to fend off calls to scrap or suspend the 12-percent value added tax (VAT), saying the controversial tax is what keeps oil products and rice in the county among the cheapest in the region.
At the signing of the declaration of merger of her political parties, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI, Partner of the Free Filipino) at Camp John Hay here, Arroyo rallied her party-mates to support the administration's fiscal reform measures and unite to ensure food and jobs for every Filipino.
"It's easy to understand why many would want to see taxes on oil and electricity removed. [But] if [the] VAT on oil and power is lifted, how do we replace about P80 billion in revenues, mostly used for the poor?" she said.
"Won't scrapping the VAT on energy benefit mainly the well-to-do, who consume 84 percent of oil and 90 percent of power, while depriving the poor of billions [of pesos] in programs now funded by VAT? " she added. "Wouldn't it strip the vast majority of our people of the means to ride out the world food and energy crises?"
With the zero tariff on oil from last month, Arroyo said Philippine oil prices are cheaper than those other countries. The price of a liter of diesel here is currently P55.90. In Thailand it is, P60, New Zealand, P67, Hong Kong, P71, and in the US, P60.
As for the price of rice, she said Philippine prices remain the lowest in the region at P35 pesos.
In India, rice is P95 per kilo, Thailand, P56 per kilo, Vietnam, P67, and Singapore, P45, she said.
Arroyo said the government is spending P8 billion to subsidize rice sold by the National Food Authority (NFA) and keep it at P18.25 per kilo. She said Indonesia's subsidized rice costs P25.30, and Malaysia's, P27.
"We have been listening, pondering, lending our ears, taking action, harnessing all our resources," Arroyo said. "Wherever our discourse leads, let us assure our people of one thing: our administration will continue to harness all the resources at our command to help ordinary Filipino families pressured by cost[s] and calamity, while still pursuing needed investments in people and infrastructure."
|
