The E-VAT equation

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 NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

After several weeks of what anxious Filipinos perceived to be stone-walling, the President has finally ordered a “review” of the extended value-added tax on power and oil, two of the most painful crosses that the citizenry had to bear in the past few years.

The E-VAT was imposed over the cries and protestations of the people, especially the wage-earners who knew what the collection of a tax of as much as 12 percent on the basic utilities would mean, and how it would cut into the already meager income they are earning. Even those who belonged to the middle-income groups were apprehensive at the effects of the new taxes on their lifestyle.

Still the administration insisted, and rammed it down the throats of the already groaning citizens. The justification was that the income to be derived from the E-VAT would stabilize the financial position of the country, and enable it to pay its debts as well as generate more for improvements in their standard of living.

And so we bit the bullet, and paid the additional amounts charged for our food, clothing and shelter, as well as for the means we have of transporting ourselves and our families to their places of study and work. For a long time, we kept on paying, even as prices of goods and other necessities, including rates charged for electricity and fuel continued to escalate, while salaries and wages remained the same.

The scrapping of the E-VAT is one of the loudest demands that street protestors are stressing and in this they have the support and approval of the great majority of the people. And when government seemed to be digging in, with its technocrats giving all kinds of justification as to why it should not be scrapped or even just suspended, it was beginning to look as if that would be the straw that would break the camel’s back.

The announcement of a “study” may calm the baying at the gate, but government had better act on this one unless it is reading the signs of the times still with deceptive rose-colored glasses.*