The government's turn

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Among the suggestions and proposals being offered to help our people cope with the economic problems now threatening them, with the expected rise in the cost of oil worldwide, is the one that would suspend the imposition of the Extended Value-Added Tax that we had been made to suffer for the past few years.

The law imposing the E-VAT had been passed over the protests and agitations of the common wage-earner, who knew its implications on their family budgets and the difficulties it would bring. But the administration was insistent, to it, this was the only way to raise more money from the people in order to be able to meet its own needs, particularly for the payment of its loans and interests they incur.

The E-VAT did indeed raise the money it intended to, at the sacrifice and deprivation of the people. In a way, our sufferings had helped alleviate the problems of our government, and it should now be time for it to also think of our welfare.

The proposal to suspend, albeit temporarily, this onerous tax especially on fuel products, could be the best way to help us cope with the anticipated problem of rising prices of goods and commodities, as well as of services. The world is now facing the prospect of much higher cost of oil, which is expected to go as high as $115 per barrel. The removal of the EVAT from the local cost of gasoline and other oil products would mean a reduction in their cost here of about P4 to P5 per liter.

Government economists and financiers give out spiels about the need to balance the budget, claiming that no less than P54 Billion would be taken off from its expected revenues without the EVAT. But the ordinary citizens, the unhappy man-on-the-street, trying to cope with his financial woes has already done so much, by sharing his meager income with the government through the EVAT. Surely it is government's turn now to also give him a breathing spell, which it can very well do by suspending, at least during the crisis, the merciless imposition of the EVAT.*