Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Thursday reiterated his call to suspend excise tax on oil products, saying that taxes collected from the sector is not a part of the planned budget of the year.
According to Drilon, the increase in oil prices stemming from the Ukraine-Russia crisis was unexpected and not accounted for when lawmakers were debating on the 2022 budget, which also stipulates the sources of income for the government.
"Ang ibig kong sabihin, hindi po kasama sa budget ng sources of revenue ang pagtaas ng presyo … ang additional revenue dahilan sa pagtaas ng presyo ng gasolina," he said.
(What I mean is, the increase of prices and additional revenue from surging oil prices were not included in the budget’s sources of revenue.)
"Kaya itong dagdag na taxes ay dagdag na lang. Ibig sabihin dapat ay suspendihin na ito dahil hindi naman inaasahan ito," he added.
(So these taxes are just additional. This means it should be suspended because it was not expected.)
Drilon made the remarks after several government officials pointed out that suspending excise tax cost the government billions of income.
However, Drilon said that the income generated from the excise tax now is not really needed and that there are a lot of unused funds in other government agencies as per the Commission on Audit.
"Hindi po kailangan. Meron pong maraming sapat na pondo na hindi ginagastos … nakatengga lang sa bangko ng iba't ibang departamento," he said.
(It is not needed. There are a lot and enough funds that are not spent … they are just kept in the banks of different departments.)
The senator also reasoned that suspending excise tax would provide relief to Filipinos, who are currently shouldering the burden of increasing costs of living.
Fuel prices across the Philippines have been surging as of late due to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis, and this has triggered a domino effect on the population, which saw calls to increase prices on consumer goods and minimum fare.
