26 October 2005
EDITORIAL: E-VAT – Making the inevitable livable
THERE is no doubt the Expanded Value- Added Tax, that’s set to hit the entire spectrum of the country’s society, rich and poor, employed and unemployed, pro-Gloria and anti-Gloria on November 1 – ironically All Souls Day – is a measure the Arroyo government can’t do without, even if it wishes it can. This government as it is, needs all the revenue it can muster to answer for the varied and mounting needs of nation-building, if not just nation-maintaining. And the additional tax will surely give it a wider elbowroom to steer the ship of state economically.
If one were to read the signals from the center of power in the country, this bitter pill that imposes additional burden on all earning and buying citizens is – was – something it did silently wish to postpone until the Supreme Court finally decided to lift its suspension on the E-VAT implementation a week ago. Now, the GMA administration is left with no alternative but to impose the tax, notwithstanding the political cost it entails on Malacanang once the actual pain begins among the low-income and middle income groups.
It is just tragic that many Filipinos now are in so deep a desperation they can only believe anti-administration rhetorics and refuse to see how government think-tanks have toiled the past months just to ease the adverse effects of E-VAT. Among the “safety nets” -- all intended to brace the entire nation for the full impact of the revenue law – are the removal of the excise tax on all oil and energy products, a general discount on diesel fuel for PUJs, tight price monitoring on all prime commodities and fare discounts for students and senior citizens.
Surely, E-VAT will hurt. Certainly it will keep some leisure and ‘sin’ goods and services beyond the reach or enjoyment of ordinary income-earners. Of course it will lead to more misunderstanding between the governors and the governed; no one needs a crystal ball to predict that. But for those who can still maintain a little level-headedness amid all the trouble and confusion, E-VAT actually is a consumption tax, and that being so, everything rests on the individual or family to increase, maintain or decrease his/their level of expenses and consequently, level of comfort, to survive the “emergency.”
In a nutshell, one should only spend less, or within his means. That’s simple common sense. At least until everyone has recovered and the nation has gotten over the hump as Finance Secretary Gary Teves so optimistically put it.
If one were to read the signals from the center of power in the country, this bitter pill that imposes additional burden on all earning and buying citizens is – was – something it did silently wish to postpone until the Supreme Court finally decided to lift its suspension on the E-VAT implementation a week ago. Now, the GMA administration is left with no alternative but to impose the tax, notwithstanding the political cost it entails on Malacanang once the actual pain begins among the low-income and middle income groups.
It is just tragic that many Filipinos now are in so deep a desperation they can only believe anti-administration rhetorics and refuse to see how government think-tanks have toiled the past months just to ease the adverse effects of E-VAT. Among the “safety nets” -- all intended to brace the entire nation for the full impact of the revenue law – are the removal of the excise tax on all oil and energy products, a general discount on diesel fuel for PUJs, tight price monitoring on all prime commodities and fare discounts for students and senior citizens.
Surely, E-VAT will hurt. Certainly it will keep some leisure and ‘sin’ goods and services beyond the reach or enjoyment of ordinary income-earners. Of course it will lead to more misunderstanding between the governors and the governed; no one needs a crystal ball to predict that. But for those who can still maintain a little level-headedness amid all the trouble and confusion, E-VAT actually is a consumption tax, and that being so, everything rests on the individual or family to increase, maintain or decrease his/their level of expenses and consequently, level of comfort, to survive the “emergency.”
In a nutshell, one should only spend less, or within his means. That’s simple common sense. At least until everyone has recovered and the nation has gotten over the hump as Finance Secretary Gary Teves so optimistically put it.
