EDITORIAL - Nightmare

There has been too much ado about the country’s rising inflation that majority of Filipinos blamed on the government’s implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or the TRAIN law since January.

Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority on Wednesday showed the inflation rate in the country continues to accelerate with the August figure hovering around 6.4 percent, the highest in nine years.

For months now, Filipinos have been complaining about the rising prices of basic commodities. They blamed the implementation of the TRAIN law, which imposed excise taxes on certain products that have pushed prices of prime goods up.

Under the TRAIN law, hefty excise taxes will be levied on diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, and bunker fuel. And we all know that once taxes for these products are raised, they become more expensive in the market.

Expensive fuel products will likewise trigger domino effects on other products, especially the basic commodities, a fact that is now happening in the country, sending  government economic experts to scour for mitigating measures.

We have to admit that the widespread concerns about the rising inflation stemmed from the strong public sentiments against the TRAIN law. Because the law extracts substantial taxes from fuel products in the government’s bid to haul more revenues, it seriously affected prices of other goods, especially those of food commodities.

TRAIN law has been designed to increase government revenues to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects under its “Build, build, build” program. Surely, the Duterte administration’s economic experts have anticipated the grave effects of the law’s implementation.

The problem is, the government has miserably failed to drum up public information on the TRAIN law’s benefits and responded slow to the growing concerns on the hiking inflation. Yes, these inflationary apprehensions will eventually subside, but it has already created a nightmare.