Govt vows to shield poor from higher excise tax

THE DUTERTE administration is putting in place highly targeted transfer programs for the poor and low-income households to be affected by proposed adjustments in excise fuel taxes, the government’s economic managers said on Monday.

In a joint position paper, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd, Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno, and Socioeconomic Secretary Ernesto Pernia said these “highly targeted transfer programs” would help cushion the impact of the proposed indexing to inflation of the excise taxes on oil products on “the poorest 50 percent of the population.”