House OKs VAT exemption for PWDs

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to exempt persons with disabilities (PWDs) from paying value-added tax (VAT) on certain goods and services.

Marikina Rep. Romero “Miro” Quimbo, chair of the ways and means panel, on Tuesday said granting PWDs tax exemption would make them more productive members of society.

The representatives approved House Bill No. 1039, “An act exempting persons with disability from VAT on certain goods and services,” with a vote of 201-0.

The bill seeks to amend Section 32 of Republic Act No. 7277, or the “Magna Carta for Persons with Disability,” to include the VAT-exemption for PWDs on top of the 20-percent discount they are already enjoying for medical, transportation and recreational services.

According to the bill, the following would be exempted from VAT: medical and dental services; purchase of medicines in all drugstores; public railways, skyways and bus fare; admission fees charged by theaters, cinema houses, concert halls, circuses, carnivals and other places of culture, leisure and amusement; and all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments, restaurants, and recreation centers.

“What we seek to do is to convert a nonperforming asset, not just an asset but in fact a burden, to become even more productive,” Quimbo said in an interview. “So today, they are a medical burden; they are a burden to the family, etc., a great number of them anyway. But with these (VAT exemptions), these are just drops in the bucket toward their mainstreaming.”
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