Double taxes on oil show govt’s lack of concern for poor – IBON
Double taxes on oil show govt’s lack of concern for poor – IBON
IBON.org
Slapping additional taxes on oil products makes the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law anti-poor, research group IBON said. Contrary to the argument that the new law is ‘fair’, the group said that these oil taxes should be scrapped for the benefit of millions of Filipinos who will otherwise continue to suffer the weight of TRAIN beyond 2018.
The Department of Finance (DOF) argues that fuel excise tax “is wrongly perceived to be anti-poor”, explaining that the top 10% richest households consume 51% of total fuel consumption, while the top 1% richest households consume 13 percent. “Fuel excise is clearly a tax that will affect the rich far more than the poor,” says the DOF, while explaining that not imposing excise levies has cost the government some Php140 billion in potential revenues per year.
However, according to IBON, having to pay double taxes through excise taxes on top of value-added tax (VAT) will inevitably affect the country’s more than 60 million living on very low incomes.
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