APPREHENSIVE of its possible adverse impact especially to the workers, a local labor group said the imposition of the second round of fuel excise tax hike is a bad New Year greeting.
President Rodrigo Duterte, during the Cabinet meeting in Malacañang Tuesday, approved the next tranche of fuel excise tax increases starting next month.
Under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Act, an additional levy of P2.24 per liter should be imposed for diesel and gasoline starting January 1, 2019.
The additional duty consists of P2 excise tax and 24 centavos value-added tax (VAT).
For the General Alliance and Workers Associations (Gawa), they do not see a bright future for the consumers and workers in the coming year.
Its secretary-general, Wennie Sancho, told SunStar Bacolod that once the prices of fuel increase, prices of basic goods and service would also go up.
Sancho said the imposition of excise tax hike will serve as a burden to the people, who are already reeling from the increases in the prices of other goods and services.
“We are not in favor of the second round of fuel tax hike as it will compound the problem,” he said, adding that “it will again result in the reduction of the purchasing power of the workers.”
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, in a report, said that Duterte is simply implementing the Train law and even with the second tranche, oil product prices will be P10 lower than their peak sometime in October.
Diokno said the arguments that led to the approval included the sharp turnaround in world crude prices.
“From a peak of close to $80 per barrel to $68 per barrel on November 29, with Dubai Futures prices projecting further decline below $60 per barrel in 2019,” he added in the report.
Sancho said as per pronouncement Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, ordinary poor will be protected with the imposition of fuel excise tax through the unconditional cash transfer.
The public utility vehicle drivers, meanwhile, will be assisted through the “pantawid pasada” program according to Angara, Sancho said.
“But how about the workers especially the minimum wage earners?” he asked, adding that “the government should have a subsidy for the workers amid the impending economic problems in the first quarter of 2019.”
Among the steps of the labor group to show its stand on the move include protests and manifestations to inform the government of their stand against fuel excise tax.
Sancho said there is a need to petition the government for the redress of grievances that the people are already burdened with the higher prices of basic commodities.
“If too much load will be put on the shoulder of the people, we might collapse from the burden of taxes,” he added.