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Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Cabaero: Consumer's option
By Nini B. Cabaero
Beyond 30
VIGILANCE is all that a consumer, burdened with rising costs, could still afford. It doesn’t cost money and therefore it is inflation-proof. All it needs to be a vigilant consumer is awareness of one’s rights and the strength to demand respect for those rights.
There is nothing assuring about the explanation of economists that the expanded or reformed value-added tax (RVAT), affirmed by the Supreme Court last week as legal, is a consumption tax. This means, economists said, that if you do not buy, you do not get to pay the expanded VAT.
Now, how can a consumer not buy liquefied petroleum gas for the kitchen, gasoline for the car or fare for the jeepney and medicine for the sick? It isn’t as if the consumer has the choice to buy or not buy.
Not reassuring too was the recent declaration of several distributors and manufacturers of goods that they would have to pass on to the consumer the additional tax burden.
It is easy for a financially-challenged consumer to surrender to the manipulations of technocrats and bureaucrats. Even the terms “financially-challenged” and “consumer” have evolved to mean the same thing in this age of the VAT.
The best course of action for the consumer is not to surrender but to insist on one’s rights when buying goods or services.
The Supreme Court decision last week affirming the legality of the new tax was like a hole in the consumer’s pocket. With the new VAT law found to be legal, those to be imposed the new tax would be petroleum products, including household necessity the liquefied petroleum gas.
Since more goods and services use fuel in one or more ways, then consumers should expect a further diminution in their purchasing power.
What is a consumer left with? Definitely not the same amount of buying power he or she had a year or two months ago. The consumer is left with the priceless alternative of vigilance.
Vigilance stems from awareness of a consumer’s rights and the processes involved in exercising such rights. This information can be found in newspaper reports and on the Department of Trade and Industry website (www.dti.gov.ph).
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The Sun.Star Network Exchange (Sunnex) holds today, in partnership with Sun.Star Cebu and DigitalFilipino.com, the first-ever blogging event in Cebu on the theme, “Empowering citizens through technology.” The Sunnex is the office that handles new media products of the Sun.Star network of local newspapers in the country.
Today’s event at 1 p.m. at the Atrium of SM Cebu marks the launching of the Sun.Star website’s (www.sunstar.com.ph) Blog Chronicles and the Sun.Star Cebu’s Citizen Journalist project. Janette Toral of DigitalFilipino.com will speak on the 11 years of the Internet in the Philippines.
(October 25, 2005 issue)
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