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By Sammy Martin, Reporter
For the second time around, windfall collections
from the Expanded Value Added Tax (E-VAT) have been sought to
subsidize fuel, particularly diesel, by the House of Representatives
over the weekend.
House Speaker Prospero Nograles reiterated his
call to the national government to reconsider his plea after local
oil companies’ announcement that they are poised to add
P2-per-liter pump price on diesel fuel and another P1 on gasoline in
the coming weeks that can possibly cripple the country’s
diesel-dependent public transport sector.
The Department of Finance, based on a report by
the Congressional Planning and Budget Department of the House of
Representatives, estimated that the E-VAT collection windfall on
petroleum for the period of January to April 2008 is worth P4
billion.
“If the government cannot prevent these
unabated increases in fuel prices, it should at least find available
ways and means to shield the public transport sector and the riding
public from this global curse,” Nograles said.
The Mindanao lawmaker has proposed a
“ladderized system” of subsidy for fuel and electricity using
the government’s unappropriated tax collections from E-VAT to ease
the burden not only of the poorest of the poor but of the
country’s middle class as well.
Nograles suggested that the government should
allocate P2 billion to subsidize diesel and liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) consumption for four months.
There are two possible scenarios for the
implementation of the ladderized scheme.
Under scenario one, public utility vehicles will
get an across-the-board diesel subsidy of 40 centavos per liter,
while LPG subsidy will be pegged at 75 centavos per kilogram. Based
on available estimates, the nationwide diesel consumption is at 8.2
billion liters, while LPG usage reaches 3.4 billion kilograms, both
for every three months.
For the second option, subsidy of diesel will be
at 70 centavos per liter for the first 30 liters for jeepneys, first
120 liters for buses, and first 30 liters for taxis. The subsidy for
LPG is P1 per kilogram.
Nograles added that the P2-billion subsidy for
diesel and LPG could be increased especially in the wake of the P2
per liter increase in diesel prices.
“The subsidy for diesel should be made
available the soonest possible time,” he said.
Apart from diesel and LPG, Nograles is also
pushing for a P2-billion electricity subsidy for a period of four
months, for some 9.4 million households using 500-kilowatt hour
(kWh) of power and below.
For the “ladderized” system of subsidy on
electricity, residential users with 401 to 500 kWh in consumption
per month, which is estimated at 113,062 households, will get 43
centavos in subsidy per kWh.
Residential users with a consumption of 301 to
400 kWh, which is estimated at 244,068 households, will get 53
centavos in subsidy per kWh, while those with 201 to 300 kWh in
consumption, which is about 587,001 households, will get 71 centavos
in subsidy per kWh.
Those will 101-kWh to 200-kWh consumption per
month which is about 1,488,882 households will get P1.07 subsidy per
kWh while those consuming 100 kWh and below which is estimated at
around 6,290,781 households will get P2.14 subsidy per kWh.
This provides an estimated monthly subsidy of
P53.45 for every Filipino household with less than 500-kWh
consumption nationwide or a total of P214 per household for a period
of four months.
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