Monday, May 12, 2008 Oledan: Public Right By Radzini Oledan Slice of Life
TODAY, the transport group Pinagkaisahang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) will stage its nationwide transport holiday to demand the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and the repeal of the Expanded Value-Added Tax Law (EVAT).
The Oil Deregulation Law and the EVAT are national policies that do not take in mind public interest.
Instead, it cushions and provides benefits to large oil companies to enormously profit at the expense of the consumers.
The EVAT law expands the coverage of the VAT to include fuel, electricity, and transportation among other previously VAT-exempt goods and services.
The EVAT law increased prices by more than P3 per liter.
Over the weekend, local oil firms implemented another round of R1 per liter hike in pump prices for petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, and liquefied petroleum gas.
The latest local price hike was led by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation which raised the prices of its fuel products by P1 per liter at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Shell was followed by Petron Corporation, Total (Philippines) Corporation, Chevron Philippines, and Unioil Petroleum Philippines.
This brings the total increase in the first 10 days of the month to P2 per liter after oil firms accelerated weekly prices hikes to one peso per liter instead of 50 centavos a liter, as they claimed that under-recoveries have reached R6 per liter.
Prior to the latest increase, unleaded gasoline was retailing at an average of R48.96 per liter while diesel was sold at an average of P41.94 per liter. An 11-kilogram tank of LPG was sold at P563 to P609.
After the price hikes, the prices of petroleum products, as far as Shell is concerned, are now P42.98 for diesel, P50.07 for unleaded, P50.56 for premium, P51.86 for velocity, and P655.00 for LPG.
The Philippine oil companies said the price adjustments were implemented due to the continuing surge in the prices of crude oil in the international market.
End-2007 financial results, publicly listed Petron reported 6% rise in its net income to P6.4 billion in 2007 from P6.02 billion the previous year. Petron attributed its strong financial performance partly to higher domestic sales volume.
After passing the policies into law, government officials are mouthing the line that they are considering the possibility of temporarily suspending the 12% EVAT. Government, they said, cannot exercise control over oil price increases.
The public demands that national government stop being an apologist of the oil companies. They have already prevailed corporate over public interests. Government officials have consistently privileged those who have the means to sustain in the market.
They have absolutely forgotten that their mandate comes from the people.
