Wage board still studying petition

As lawmaker moves to cut VAT from 12 to 6 percent

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) - 7 is currently scrutinizing the economic indicators whether there are supervening conditions that would merit any wage increase.

RTWPB-7 legal counsel Glen Tabon said that the wage board has no schedule for wage deliberation or wage hike public hearing while the scrutiny is ongoing.

RTWPB-7 has approved a wage increase in September and under the rules, wage boards are not allowed to adjust worker’s salaries for a year after the last increase unless they found the presence of “supervening conditions”.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines filed a P90-wage hike petition for all the workers in Central Visayas two weeks ago before the RTWPB-7.

Ferdinand Jumapao, ALU-TUCP area vice president, stated that the P20-increase for minimum wage earners that was granted by RTWPB-7 last September 22 is already overtaken by the continuing increases in the prices of oil and its products like the liquified petroleum gas, utilities and basic goods and services.

Businessman and Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian who was in Cebu for a speaking engagement the other night said that whether to grant or not to grant any wage increase is a very difficult issue.

Gatchalian said that any petition to increase the workers’ salaries must be seriously deliberated by the regional wage board as he is not amenable that wages should be legislated.

“Double-whammy kasi yan. Hindi dapat e-legislate yong petition to increase the salary. Kasi iba-iba ang sitwasyon in every region,” Gatchalian said in a press conference. (It’s a different situation in each region so wage increase must not be through legislation.)

Meanwhile, as prices of fuel continue to increase as well as the recent increase in jeepney’s fares, the power rate hike and the petition to increase the workers’ salaries, a call is made to cut the existing 12-percent Value Added Tax to six percent.

Former Manila Congressman  Bienvenido Abante, who was here in Cebu recently, asked Congress to reduce the existing rate of the reformed VAT and heed the growing public clamor for immediate relief from the rising costs of goods, including petroleum products.

Abante said that the Philippines has the highest VAT rate in Asia, it is as if we are a rich nation. The former lawmaker urged the House of  Representatives to enact a law that would cut the rate of VAT from the current 12 percent to six percent.

“Malaki ang nawawala sa income nang mga workers dahil sa VAT. Dapat ang lagyan ng VAT ay yong mga luxury items lang,” Abante said. (Workers must not be made to suffer from VAT, which should be imposed only on luxury items. (FREEMAN)