House leader seeks EVAT-less Christmas

The chairman of the House oversight committee of the whole sought yesterday a delay in implementing the controversial expanded value-added tax law until December to allow the people to experience an "EVAT-less" Christmas.

"The government must give the people a short reprieve from this forced taxation," Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez told reporters during the weekly "Balitaan sa Rembrandt Hotel" forum in Quezon City.

Suarez said the President’s economic team must have enough time to fine-tune the implementing rules and guidelines of the new measure to ensure that it will not be subject to abuse by unscrupulous business groups.

A review time of at least two months will be a good enough grace period to implement measures to cushion the impact of the proposed measure, which Suarez claimed has become a form of physiological torture on the people.

He said the government must first wait for the financial reports of various institutions to determine if they have attained their revenue targets for the year and if it is really necessary for the country to "bite the bullet."

Suarez said that since the Supreme Court has given the go-signal for the law’s implementation, the initiative to suspend it must now come from the executive and legislative branches of government which will be crafting the Internal Revenue Rules, without which the new law cannot be implemented.

Suarez expressed doubts that the government could meet its revenue targets by imposing the measure. He said the new tax may be effective on petroleum and power but in other areas, collection may be below 50 percent.

"A two-month reprieve will allow the people to at least feel the spirit of Christmas without the burden of forced taxation," he said.

However, Trade Secretary Peter Favila reiterated yesterday that the EVAT would have a minimal impact on prices of basic goods.

Favila met with members of the manufacturing and food processing industry, hog raisers, poultry growers, importers, supermarket and retail associations, the Department of Agriculture and the National Price Coordinating Council.

He said manufacturers, food processors, hog and poultry growers gave assurances that as far as they are concerned, the EVAT would have no immediate effect on their prices. However, they could not guarantee that the same would be true for the middlemen and retailers.

They also explained that in December, prices of goods naturally increase due to demand but this would only last a few weeks and eventually settle down to previous levels after Christmas.

Retailers and supermarket associations, on the other hand, said that because of stiff competition in the market, retailers are being more careful in adjusting prices upwards.

"We see very little impact," said Trade Undersecretary for Consumer Welfare Zenaida Maglaya. "Prices of canned and processed goods, in particular, should not move because of EVAT because these were already covered by the old VAT law," she said.

The Department of Trade and Industry, Favila said, is also stepping up price monitoring and other safeguards against price hikes such as strict implementation of the price tag law, setting up price boards and standardization of weighing scales. — With Marianne Go