TRAIN subsidy not an insult to poor — DSWD exec

MANILA, Philippines — The P200 per month tax reform subsidy provided by the government is minimal but should not be seen as an insult to the poor, Social Welfare acting Secretary Virginia Orogo said yesterday.

Orogo said the unconditional cash transfer (UCT) is intended to help some 10 million poor families cope with the economic effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

“The amount is minimal as this is just intended to aid our poor kababayans cope with the changes due to the TRAIN law,” she said.

“The UCT was never intended to respond to all the needs of the poor families,” she added.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is mandated to implement the UCT.

But Orogo said the studies and analysis on the UCT provision was comprehensively done by the Department of Finance and lawmakers.

She said the program aims to cushion the effect of the adjustments in the excise tax of petroleum products and sweetened beverages because of the TRAIN law.

Several groups have criticized the government for the minimal subsidy, noting the rising inflation and the jeepney fare hike in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

According to Orogo, they have yet to meet an actual beneficiary who felt insulted by the assistance.

“The beneficiaries have actually expressed their gratitude to this minimal yet unexpected assistance,” she said.

The agency has provided grants to more than four million Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries and is currently conducting scheduled payouts for indigent senior citizens.

Some eight million beneficiaries are expected to receive their subsidy by the end of the month, according to the DSWD.

Lawmaker: Blame

TRAIN, not spenders

President Duterte’s economic managers should blame the TRAIN law he asked Congress to pass, instead of Filipino spenders, for high inflation, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said yesterday.

Lagman urged them to make a “rigorous” study of the effects of TRAIN on rising consumer prices instead of “nonchalantly pointing to other factors such as global oil prices and peso depreciation, including the purported buying propensity of Filipinos, as culprits.”

He said the real culprit is the so-called tax reform law the President and his economic managers led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III had pushed Congress to enact.

“Its imposition of higher excise taxes on petroleum products, among others, has cascaded into the shallow pockets of ordinary Filipinos who are now confronted with higher costs of fuel, transport, electricity as well as commodities and services due to increased production cost,” he said.

Lagman said the 5.2 inflation rate is an “understatement” since based on the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority, prices of food items increased by 6.1 percent.

He added that Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has admitted that the inflation rate would remain elevated for the rest of the year and will spike later in 2018.

Dominguez, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. have been claiming that the effect of TRAIN on the increase in the prices of goods and services was a miniscule .4 percent or less than one percent.

Such assertion is “fake news,” according to leftist party-list representatives led by Bayan Muna’s Carlos Zarate.

They cite the case of oil products, whose prices have jumped by P9 to P10 per liter due to taxes imposed by TRAIN and higher cost of crude in the world market.

They said the law imposed an excise tax of P2.50 per liter on diesel, plus 12-percent value added tax, for a total of nearly P3.

“A P3 increase on account of the law is 33.33 percent of the P9 hike in the price of diesel per liter. The Cabinet members’ claim that the effect of TRAIN on prices is .4 percent is clearly fake news and a deception,” they said.

Zarate warned the public to brace for more price hikes.

He said prices are bound to go up further since fuel taxes under TRAIN would again increase next year, and again in 2020.

“We are still reeling from the effects of the P2.50 increase in the tax on diesel. Imagine what the effects would be when the P4 and P6 excise tax is implemented next year and in 2020. It is clear that unless the TRAIN law is repealed, we are in for bigger price shocks in the coming years,” he said.

Zarate urged President Duterte to ask his congressional allies to either repeal or suspend the TRAIN law until prices go down. – With Jess Diaz