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ANGELES CITY- Amid the failure of government agencies to collect revenues worth billions, a partylist solon has urged the Filipino people to hold continuing protest actions against the implementation of the Train Law that would increase excise taxes on fuel in three tranches.
Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Ariel Casilao noted a recent report of the Department of Finance (DoF) indicating it missed its projected collection P190 billion target under Train 1 as in the past eight months, it has collected only P10.6 billion, which was 74.1 percent lower than expected.
Casilao also noted that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) posted P500 Million net revenue but also reported losses of P17 billion. The Bureau of Customs (BoC), on the other hand, collected only P26.6 billion, missing its target of P41 billion from January to August 2018.
“Despite the glaring failure of the Train Law to collect its target revenues, the House leadership is hell-bent to implement the Train 1B even as data from the finance department revealed that the collected revenue from the excise on oil only got P31 billion out its P41.8-billion target. Also, revenue collected from sweetened beverages reached only P24.9 billion or 30.6 percent below its P35.9-billion target. Tax on coal collected only P600 million and missed almost half of its supposed P1.2-billion projected target,” Casilao also noted.
The government imposed a P2.50 tax per liter of diesel and P1 on liquefied petroleum gas under the Train Law’s first tranche of excise tax on fuel. The Train Law levies a total of P6 per liter on oil products, spread over three years starting 2018 up to 2020.
Because of inflation, however, the government announced temporary suspension of the P2 more per liter excise tax on fuel in 2019.
In a statement, Casilao urged yesterday the public “to oppose and join the protests of various progressive groups against the continuing implementation of the Train Law and the succeeding packages which will be implemented next year by the Duterte government.”
“Notwithstanding the suspension of the excise tax on oil for the first quarter of 2019, the people should be vigilant about the fact that the Duterte government remains determined to implement not only the anti-people provisions of Train Law package 1 but also other packages. Ordinary Filipinos, mostly the working class, peasants, urban poor and even the middle section, should step up their protests against the anti- people provisions of the tax reforms of the Duterte administration”, he said.
“The revealing failure of collected revenue from the much-ballyhooed Train Law is reason enough for ordinary people to reject the Train law for its anti-people character,” he also said.
