VAT on toll fees, questionable toll rates opposed

VAT on toll fees, questionable toll rates opposed

“The Aquino government should not treat our expressways like a milking cow; it should recognize it as a form of social service to the public.” TUTOL-SLEX
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Questions still linger over the price tag of the South Luzon Expressways (SLEx) project, which had ballooned more than twice its projected amount, from P5.88 billion($138.9m) to P12.5 billion ($295.2m). Why and how it happened in just four years has not yet been probed by the government despite the demands of consumers and taxpayers’ groups. Instead, the government, through its Toll Regulatory Board, had approved late last year increases in toll fee levels based on this still unexplained project cost.
(Read: Critics condemn the TRB “lies, treachery and betrayal” in hastily approving 300% toll fee hikes)
(See also: Apart from shocking 300% toll fee hike, govt has to account for dramatic jump in the SLEx project cost)

But before this year ends the government appears bent on coming out with another hike in toll fees, because another round is looming ahead as it gears up to impose the value-added tax (VAT) on its “approved” toll fees. In a picket protest before the Toll Regulatory Board, the TUTOL-SLEx, an alliance composed of taxpayers, consumers and transport workers and small operators, has urged the TRB and the public to stop this “added burden.”

“The Aquino government should not treat our expressways like a milking cow; it should recognize it as a form of social service to the public,” reasoned Sammy Malunes, spokesperson of TUTOL-SLEx. Malunes had worked at the government-owned LRT (Light Rail Transit) until 2001, when majority of the employees including him who was then the union president were dismissed for having defended their right to strike. Malunes and other members of the LRT union have since joined groups that remind the government of the public service component of the country’s railways and toll roads.

In a protest before the Toll Regulatory Board last Sept 1, the TUTOL-SLEx urged President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to scrap “this plan of robbing people who don’t have choices other than use the expressways in travelling.”

Lack of due process, again

TUTOL-SLEx pointed out once more the TRB’s seeming lack of due process in setting toll fees.
After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of imposing VAT on toll fees, the TRB has reportedly prepared to tackle the increase in toll fees being collected along the country’s expressways, even as the Bureau of Internal Revenue has put forward its estimates that the toll operators owe the government a total of P6.5 billion ($153.9 million) in unpaid VAT on toll from 2007 to 2009.

But when the TUTOL-SLEx attended what was supposedly a public hearing on toll fees, the group found out that the TRB “once again fell short of its responsibility to the people.” The group aired its disappointment with the supposed hearing as they found only the TRB executive director, Mr Manuel G. Imperial, and TRB spokesman, Mr. Julius Corpuz, acting as panel in the hearing..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/09/02/vat-on-toll-fees-questionable-toll-rates-opposed/