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FORMER
President Joseph Estrada on Sunday backed calls to
suspend imposition of the 12-percent value- added tax
(VAT) on oil and electricity, even for just one year, to
provide some relief to overburdened consumers reeling
from the rapid rise in food and fuel prices.
Estrada endorsed the mounting clamor for
some breathing spell from skyrocketing monthly electric
bills and virtually weekly increases in pump
level prices of gasoline and diesel, as well as
liquefied petroleum gas.
“The government should heed public
appeals to suspend the vat on oil and electricity for a
year, or at least until prices have stabilized,”
Estrada told reporters.
He warned that Malacañang could get
mired in illegal-disbursement cases involving the use of
VAT collections for so-called subsidies, in the absence
of an appropriation law passed by Congress for that
purpose.
“They [Palace officials] should be
transparent insofar as the use of VAT for subsidies is
concerned,” he said. “How can they justify who would be
given [the subsidy] eh, ang daming mahihirap [when there
are so many poor people]?”
According to Estrada, suspending the VAT
on oil and electricity will provide a more immediate
benefit “that would be felt by everybody.”
At the same time, Sen. Loren Legarda
cautioned the government not to resort to “subsidies
that are dole-outs” and, instead, provide financial
support for health and education which, she said, are
“more targeted and beneficial subsidies.”
Legarda, likewise, called on the public
and the private sector to help ease inflation by
“cutting back on consumption of unnecessary goods and/or
substitution of necessary goods with cheaper ones.”
B. Fernandez |
