The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Tuesday admitted that the lack of a drivers’ database has delayed the implementation of the “Pantawid Pasada” program under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.
During the hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means on the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package (CTRP) or TRAIN 2, Transportation Undersecretary Thomas M. Orbos of the Lone District of Quirino told lawmakers that the agency is still gathering its database to determine the number of beneficiaries, which include drivers and operators of public-utility vechicles (PUV).
“We are still securing the drivers database from stakeholders themselves,” Orbos said.
It the same hearing, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairman Martin B. Delgra III said the program is targeting to benefit 400,000 to 500,000 PUV drivers in the country.
“We are also trying to generate drivers database through drivers academy program of the LTFRB that we have started last year and we are still doing it until now. We’re now looking at 400,000 to 500,000 drivers covering the same number of public-utility vehicles that are registered in our system,” Delgra added.
The Pantawid Pasada program, which is provided for in TRAIN 1, is expected to mitigate the impact of the new tax-reform law on PUV drivers.
Citing the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said the government has until end of the year to spend P900-million budget for the program.
“I think there’s about P900 million that is valid up to December 2018. If they dont use it, according to the DBM, it is cash based, so it could be voided. They have to speed up the implementation,” Chua added.
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dakila Carlo E. Cua of the Lone district of Quirino directed the transportation agency to submit a report to the committee next week on how it will implement the Pantawid Pasada program.
Earlier, Cua warned the Department of Finance (DOF) that it will be difficult for the lower chamber to pass another tax-reform law being pushed by the Duterte administration if the social benefits included in the initial phase of TRAIN 1 won’t be fully implemented.
Under the TRAIN law, the government shall implement the Pantawid Pasada program, a social assistance project for commuters and public transport, and the jeepney modernization program to ease the impact of the oil excise tax increases on commuters and the land-transport sector.
Besides the Pantawid Pasada, the TRAIN provides for additional unconditional-cash transfers to low-income earners amounting to P2,400 for 2018, and P3,600 for 2019 and 2020. The DOF said P4.3 billion has been released in the first quarter, which forms part of the total of P 25.7 billion allocated for UCTs for 2018.
The law also provides for a “Pantawid Kuryente” to help small power consumers in missionary electrification areas.
Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate of Bayan Muna said the failure of the DOTr to implement the Pantawid Pasada program due to lack of data points to the “government’s criminal neglect of the people’s welfare.”
“They should not have implemented the TRAIN in the first place and this gives further reason to repeal the TRAIN law,” Zarate said.
Features of TRAIN 2
The ways and means panel has started on Tuesday discussing several bills which aim to reduce corporate-income tax and modernize fiscal incentives under TRAIN 2.
TRAIN 2 aims to lower corporate-income tax to 25 percent, from 30 percent and to harmonize fiscal incentives.
Party-list Rep. Antonio L. Tinio of ACT Teachers said the government should first address several issues concerning the implementation of TRAIN 1. Tinio also said, only big corporations will be the “biggest winners” with TRAIN 2.
“It’s true that tax incentives on both foreign and local investment, requires an overhaul. As the DOF itself has noted, the government gave away P301 billion in incentives to foreign and local investors in 2015 alone. The incentive reforms proposed in TRAIN 2 are meant to plug those leakages,” Tinio added.
“However, what the government takes back with one hand, it will give away with the other. The question is, to whom? The DOF itself avers that TRAIN 2 will be revenue-neutral. Whatever revenues the government recovers through incentive reform, it intends to give away in the form of the proposed lower corporate income-tax rate,” he said.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes