More families getting poor due to TRAIN—ex-antipoverty chief

Former Antipoverty Secretary Liza Maza has called for the immediate repeal of the government’s tax reform law, saying it has pushed more Filipino families into the pits of poverty due to rising food prices.

In a statement, Maza said more families would be forced to live in worsening poverty unless the government pulled the plug on the “sham” Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.

“I stand with calls for a truly progressive tax system, one that is based on an individual’s capacity to pay. We can no longer deny the ongoing crisis, and the government must take immediate and concrete steps to address this,” she said.

In calling for the repeal of the TRAIN law, she cited recent simulation by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), which revealed that a 5 percentage-point rise in food inflation rate would push about 333,000 households to poverty.

The NAPC study attributed the rise in food prices to the TRAIN law’s effects on inflation, as well as the provisions on value-added and excise taxes.

She raised concern over the impact of the second package of the tax reform law, or TRAIN 2, which would supposedly reduce corporate income taxes from 30 percent to 20 percent.

She said TRAIN 2 would result in a P62-billion government revenue loss, based on Department of Finance estimates.—MELVIN GASCON