“It’s really ridiculous that the people are already paying for the
cost of constructing roads and on top of that paying for taxes on their
payments.” – former Rep. Renato Diaz, consultant when the VAT law was
crafted 17 years ago
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Does silence mean yes? Is it wise to assume that what is not
expressly excluded is perhaps legally included? Did the Supreme Court
over-extend itself when it approved the Value–Added Tax (VAT) on toll
fees, even if it was not expressly stated in law?
These and other questions were probed in a meeting of the House of
Representatives’ Committee on Ways and Means Tuesday, which decided to
approve and consolidate the pending bills here seeking to explicitly
exclude from the scope of Value-Added Tax the fees on toll roads. The
Senate already has a matching bill. “We’re just awaiting the bill of the
House of Representatives,” said Sen. Ralph Recto.
Former Rep. Renato Diaz, consultant when the VAT law was crafted 17
years ago, told the committee on ways and means that the law does not
provide for the imposition of VAT on toll fees. “It’s not true the SC
decision mandates the BIR to implement VAT on toll fees. That is
misleading.” Diaz explained that it is “the decision of the executive if
they would press ahead with imposing the VAT on toll fees or not.”
The Supreme Court decision, which is being used by the Bureau of
Internal Revenue (BIR) as basis for levying a VAT on toll fees this
October, has prompted moves in the two chambers of Congress to craft a
“simple” law explicitly excluding toll fees from VAT coverage.
Members of TutolSlex urged the public to press Congress and Aquino to exempt toll fees from VAT. (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)
A few days after the VAT began to be imposed on toll fees, motorists,
commuters and peoples’ groups are still protesting the decision. They
have been calling on the public to put pressure on the country’s
legislators and the president to stop the “regressive tax” and “double
taxation.”
The Taxpayers’ Unity vs Toll Hikes (Tutol Slex), for example,
continues to conduct protest actions in the toll booths and in Congress
as they urged lawmakers to pass House Bill 5303, authored by Bayan Muna
Rep. Teddy Casiño. The bill seeks to explicitly exempt from VAT coverage
the fees on toll roads.
On Tuesday, too, members of TutolSlex urged the Supreme Court to
issue a temporary restraining order on collecting VAT on toll fees.
A commuters’ group, the National Council for Commuters’ Protection,
and a transport group (Piston), also expressed in Congress their strong
opposition to VAT on toll fees, as well as to VAT in general and
excessive toll fee increases in particular.....
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Source: Bulatlat.com
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111005com4.html