VAT break ‘favors’ rich and middle-class

Claiming that most of those benefitting from the Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemption for senior citizens are the rich and the middle-class, the Department of Finance (DOF) has proposed to limit the tax break to medicines.

At a hearing of the Senate ways and means committee headed by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara on Wednesday, DOF Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said they are looking at lifting VAT exemption of senior citizens on non-essentials, which only the rich and middle-class senior citizens can afford to buy.