Impose heavy taxes on gas guzzling vehicles

There is a good way of resolving the current controversy on vehicle taxes. Impose heavy taxes on luxury and gas guzzling vehicles and keep the AUVs and cars up to 1600 cc displacement within reach of the middle class. This approach is the only really defensible way of addressing the problem. This also supports the national need to conserve energy at this time when the peso is deteriorating and international oil prices are hitting the roof.

I guess it was the successful lobbying of American automakers that led government to revise what is already a good taxation policy for vehicles. What we really need are more efficient AUVs, vehicles that also have the maximum amount of local components.

There really is no need to accommodate the Americans on this one. The SUVs they are selling here are just too anti-social for our environment. They aggravate not just the economy but social tensions as well.

Even if owners of these SUVs can afford their vehicle’s scandalous fuel consumption, that is still not good for the total economy. They effectively misallocate precious foreign exchange to cover their higher fuel costs. It is as if our OFWs breaking their backs and suffering loneliness in Hong Kong and the Middle East to earn dollars so we can import fuel for these SUVs.

If the only problem is the tax loophole that the Honda CRV exploited, a special provision can be introduced to tax the CRV and other similar vehicles like passenger cars rather than AUVs. It is also more difficult to administer an excise tax system based on value since this can be easily manipulated and is also subject to exchange rate fluctuation.

There is a need for the Departments of Trade, Finance and Energy to get together to formulate a tax policy that not only raises tax revenues, encourages long term investment but also satisfies the goal of maximizing energy efficiency. We have to be fair to the foreign car companies that invested in producing those AUVs and 1600 sedans in the 70s and are only starting to reap the benefits now.

More important, given that traffic on Metro Manila streets crawl at no more than 40 kph on average, there is no need for those outsized SUV engines wasting fuel, often enough while idling, which also increases air pollution. The heft of these vehicles and given the similarly outsized ego of most of their drivers, these SUVs are also a danger in our streets.

In a sense, the bigger engines of the luxury sedans pose a similar problem. Simply, we don’t need them, given the reality of our traffic conditions. Those who want to drive them must be made to pay a tax for the privilege. Actually, taxing vehicles on the basis of engine displacement is really the way to go. I cannot understand why it was changed to begin with. I remember that we set that standard during the energy crisis years of the 80s and it is a good standard to keep indefinitely.

If the Americans want to enter our market, let them adjust to our standards. We should not be bullied to adjust to theirs. In any case, our officials should protect our interest, the interest of the common Pinoys, and not the elite or foreigners who want to sell in our market.

Since the executive department can’t seem to do the right thing and say no to American lobbyists, maybe Congress should do it for the country. Congress should pass the necessary legislation to set the executive department straight on the vehicle tax controversy.

Bar exams

Rene B. Azurin, a UP Engineering graduate of 1969, sent me this e-mail that questions the importance our society places on lawyers. Mr. Azurin also currently teaches Strategic Management in the Graduate program of the UP College of Business Administration.

Ever since I can remember, newspapers have always given front page coverage to Bar topnotchers. Ever since I can remember, newspapers have always buried coverage of Engineering Board results deep in their inside pages, in tiny print, if they even deigned to mention these at all.

At the risk of seeming facetious – though hardly I think ridiculous – one could very well speculate that this glorification of law graduates must be the reason why our country is in the sad state it is in today.

Consider: when Japan was rebuilding itself from the ashes of WWII, it consciously made the decision to make education free for all those who qualified for engineering school, while making education prohibitively expensive for those who wanted to go to law school. As a result, Japan’s best and brightest became engineers, not lawyers. The consequence of that fateful decision more than half a century ago became evident barely 20 years later: Japanese manufacturing technology had become the best in the world.

Today, Japan has the one of the highest densities of engineers in its population, and one of the lowest densities of lawyers. It is not very hard to understand that having lawyers only add costs to the economy (bottlenecks are their most important product), while having engineers is essential in creating potential future revenues.

And it should be obvious to everyone that, in a technological, globally competitive world, our country’s future largely depends on whether the flower of our youth become "ginginirs", rather than "atorrrrnehs". But the newspapers’ coverage continues to send the message to our young people that lawyering is a more important profession than engineering. I suppose they must honestly think so.

One would wish, though, that those bright young Filipinos who just passed the Bar exam had chosen to become engineers instead.

Well, I guess it is all a matter of habit as far as the newspapers are concerned. Maybe, some editors will read Mr. Azurin’s e-mail and make a conscious effort to make a splash when the results of the engineering board exams are released.

Bush war

Dr. Ernie E contributed this one, straight out of Bush’s Texas.

"Dubya" and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar.

A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn’t that Bush and Powell sitting over there?"

The barman says, "Yep, that’s them."

So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real honor. What are you guys doing in here?"

Bush says, "We’re planning World War III ".

And the guy says, "Really? What’s going to happen?"

Bush says, "Well, we’re going to kill 140 million Iraqis this time and one blonde with big tits.

The guy exclaimed, "A blonde with big tits? Why kill a blonde with big tits?"

Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the shoulder and says, "See, I told you no one would worry about the 140 million Iraqis!"

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]