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Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Editorial: Not the time for e-VAT
WERE it not for the Supreme Court ruling issued last Friday, the country would have experienced further political tension and uncertainty with the implementation of the expanded value-added tax that's supposed to take effect this month.
As gleaned by one columnist the temporary restraining order (TRO) as petitioned by the opposition lawmakers served to cool down whatever grumbling and anger were voiced by the public following President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's admission that she was the voice in the controversial CD.
There had been suspicions from several quarters that the President moved for the issuance of that TRO precisely to douse the fires of outrage that had been building up ever since the emergence of that CD conversation with former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcilliano.
Whatever the reasons for the TRO issuance it nevertheless bought time not only for President Arroyo but for the National Government to re-assess this piece of legislation that's supposed to boost revenues for them but instead threatens to further bring Juan dela Cruz down the gutter.
Aside from the fact that its effectivity this month is bad timing the 12 percent e-VAT would result in skyrocketing increases in prices of petroleum products.
From the already steep P30 per liter the e-VAT would jack up its prices to P34 per liter and there are projections that it would even go as far as P50 per liter.
Imagine what that would do to the prices of basic and prime commodities some of which are already out of reach for the common tao. With the political crisis underway it would be near impossible for government to sell this e-VAT to the public.
The conservative guess here is that the e-VAT would be shelved at least until the uproar over the CD and jueteng controversies die down.
But with the jueteng investigations still ongoing and demand for her resignation growing President Arroyo is hard put to implement, much less sell anew the e-VAT as part of her economic programs.
The Palace would first have to take small but significant steps towards resolving the political impasse before convincing anew a peeved public regarding the justification for their e-VAT program.
And the stage for doing that is the forthcoming State of the Nation Address scheduled to be given by the President before a mixed Congress sometime this month.
(July 5, 2005 issue)
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