Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Ariel Casilao urged the Duterte government to “run after tax evaders, improve tax collection or impose higher taxes on the richest elite in the country such as those tagged by Forbes as among the 50 richest.”
Casilao lamented the proposed excise tax on diesel as being “regressive and anti-poor,” as he branded its proponents, including National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Ernesto Pernia, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Department of Finance (DOF) Sec. Carlos Dominguez as being “neo-liberally limited.”
Casilao also said that “instead of conscientiously running after tax evaders who are usually from the business sector, these economic managers prefer a band-aid solution that is undemocratic and burdensome to the majority of the population.”
“Oil products are volatile commodity due to the monopoly of a few oil companies who ‘cartelize’ prices as tolerated by the existing law deregulating the oil industry. Oil price hikes trigger a pandemonium effect, from transportation costs, prices of basic goods, utilities and services that would automatically affect the poor sectors,” he warned.
Casilao said “government tax agencies should shape up and carry out reforms in getting their collectibles, such as the staggering losses of BIR at P400 billion and customs at P200 billion in 2012, as announced by the finance department.”
“Instead of the economic managers limiting themselves to finding ways to tax the poor, they should target the elite rich such as those tagged by Forbes magazine as among the 50 richest in the country,” he said.
He cited a survey of the IBON Foundation indicating that seven out of 10 Filipinos considered themselves poor and that in the past three months, 64 percent of Filipinos had trouble paying for electricity, while 53.3 percent had trouble buying food.
Anakpawis called for a “reversal of government policies and programs whose main beneficiaries are rich elite.”
“Let us protest any measure that violates the President’s promise of ‘change is coming,’ especially this tax measure that is anti-poor and anti-people,” Casilao also said.
