WHEN retired persons and other senior citizens gather, their discussions tend to move toward their illnesses and what medications they take.
Then, they share experiences about not getting proper discounts from establishments that violate laws granting them benefits and privileges.
One pharmacy does not grant the 20 percent discount. Another jacks up the prices of medicine sold through the senior citizen’s counter. A restaurant cheats in its computation of the discount, while another insists on a cap to how much a senior citizen should eat. Another does not deduct the value-added tax (VAT).
These and many more instances become a source of disillusionment for senior citizens who have rights provided by law but the implementation of these laws by some businesses make a mockery of their status in society.
It is in this context that talk about removing the tax exemption granted to senior citizens in order for the government to reform the tax system is not popular to senior citizens, some of them highly opinionated, articulate and vocal.
How can you remove a benefit when we do not even fully enjoy those privileges provided us by law? Why target senior citizens’ benefits when the Bureau of Internal Revenue could go after big tax offenders? These were among the questions they raised in reaction to government’s plans.
The Department of Finance is looking into overhauling the country’s tax system to include removing the exemptions of senior citizens from paying the VAT. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez had said that while government is not eyeing new taxes, some VAT exemptions would have to be removed. He told House of Representatives members studying the 2017 budget that the proposal to eliminate VAT exemptions would not be for all goods and services. Exemptions on food, medicine and education would remain. Nothing is final yet as the Finance department is studying the plan.
Removing some VAT exemptions is seen by the Finance department as a way to lower income tax rates. Dominguez had said the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking ways to reform the tax system without adding to the poor’s burdens.
Benefits to senior citizens are provided for under Republic Act no. 9994, otherwise known as the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010,” and Republic Act No. 10645 that provides for the mandatory government health insurance for all senior citizens.
There must be other ways of reforming the system while keeping benefits for seniors and persons with disabilities. Some of the benefits due them are not being implemented by dishonest establishments, and senior citizens have to insist on their rights to get them.
As the Philippine Association of Retired Persons (Parp) used to say, “Tatanda ka rin.” (“You, too, will grow old.”) What Parp meant was that every opportunity to defend and uphold the rights of retired persons and senior citizens should be seized, for the elderly today and those in the years to come.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)