Gatchalian: Suspension of oil excise tax a ‘last resort’

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian views the suspension of the excise tax collection on fuel products as a “last resort” for the government.

Gatchalian, who chairs the oversight committee on biofuels, said Wednesday that suspending the oil excise tax would be “too drastic” to government revenues.

“I’m not gonna discuss that for now because I’m looking at that as a last resort. It’s not one of the tools that I’m looking at because its impact on government revenue is too drastic,” Gatchalian said in a press briefing.

“We have to remember that our credit rating is always high because efficient magkolekta ang gobyerno. Kapag tinanggal mo yan, it will affect our credit rating (the government is efficient in collecting. If we remove that, it will affect our credit rating),” he added.

If fuel prices would become severely extreme and persist for “years,” Gatchalian said that the suspension of excise tax could be considered.

Nonetheless, Gatchalian stressed that he is open to that possibility.

“Open ako. I’m not closing that avenue kasi alam ko na malaki ang spillover effects nitong presyo ng langis eh (because I know the spillover effects of fuel prices are huge) on inflation, on food, on other things,” he stated.

Earlier in the same briefing, Gatchalian also emphasized the need to do “belt-tightening” measures in the government, citing the utilization of remote work to cut back on travel expenses.

“Hindi lang revenue ang dapat pataasin kundi pababain ang expense at maghanap tayo ng paraan para mapababa pa yung expenses ng gobyerno,” Gatchalian said.

(Aside from increasing revenues, expenses should also be decreased and we should also find ways to reduce the expenses of the government.)

“I’ll give you an example: ‘yung traveling, pwede nang tanggalin muna ‘yung traveling at mag-zoom muna, dahil traveling expense, napakalaki rin niyan eh so we can encourage to conduct meetings via Zoom instead of flying from one place to another,” he added.

(I’ll give you an example— traveling can be suspended for the meantime and we can utilize Zoom because traveling expenses are also high so that we can encourage conducting meetings via Zoom instead of flying from one place to another.) – Xander Dave Ceballos

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