Bam urges review of TRAIN amid concerns on price increases

MANILA, Philippines —  The government should review the tax reform law that kicked into effect at the start of the year after a survey showed that pay and prices are the major concerns of the public, Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV said on Wednesday.

Aquino questioned whether the government's P200 monthly transfer to the poorest Filipinos is enough to cushion the effects of the first package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law, which became effective on Jan. 1, 2018.

“Let us listen to the sentiments of Filipinos who feel the weight of high prices of goods and services and insufficient income,” Aquino said in Filipino.

“It is time to analyze the real impact of the TRAIN law and ensure that the government is not making the lives of Filipinos worse,” he said.

TRAIN is meant to infrastructure projects that the government says will create jobs and will benefit Filipinos in the long run.

According to Pulse Asia’s March 2018 Ulat ng Bayan, money-related matters such as better pay for workers and the rising cost of goods and services are the leading national concerns of Filipinos.

The poll showed that 50 percent of the respondents mentioned an increase in the salary of workers as their major concern. This represented a seven-point increase in the number of Filipinos who saw this as a priority issue compared to last year’s data.

Forty-five percent of the respondents meanwhile mentioned controlling the rising prices of goods as the leading issue that they would like the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to address.

Aquino also reiterated his call to review the TRAIN law as it has contributed to the increase in the prices of goods and services that had burdened Filipinos, especially the poor.

He filed Senate Resolution 704 urging appropriate Senate committees to conduct an inquiry into the law’s inflationary effects and its impact on the economy, especially the P7 excise tax on gasoline and the P2.50 levy on diesel.

Aquino also filed Senate Resolution 597 asking the appropriate Senate committees to look into the implementation of the government’s unconditional cash transfer to ensure that it was sufficient to cushion the impact of the price increases.

He said that despite the assurance of the Department of Finance that the TRAIN’s inflationary impact would not be more in 0.7 percent latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the country’s inflation rate for March was at 4.3 percent.