Effects of excise tax by TRAIN Law have 'serious lack of study', lawmaker says

Albay Representative Edcel Lagman on Wednesday claimed there has been a "serious lack of study" regarding the effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law on the masses, as legislators seek to review the provision on excise tax.

"The fact that there is a lack of serious study on the ill effects of the TRAIN once implemented on the masses. I think the economic advisers should be able to retrace the footsteps before it's too late," Lagman said in an interview on ANC's Headstart.

Lagman said the government could wait for a "better time" to increase the excise taxes instead of distressing the masses.

"It's a question of priorities. You want more taxes and you'll bedevil the masses? Or you force-protect the masses and wait for a better time to increase the excise taxes? It's a question of priority which should come first. The people or revenue collection?," he said.

Lagman said the Congress could pass a joint resolution suspending the implementation of the excise taxes on fuel products, saying it is a "culprit."

"We have already said during the deliberation that this would be oppressive to the masses because [they] did not benefit from tax relief because in the first place, they were already exempted from taxes. But they are suffering from the ill effects of the increase in excise taxes of petroleum products," he said.

On Monday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the government does not have any immediate plan to suspend the reformed excise tax rates on petroleum products as it is still unwarranted under current conditions.

Under the TRAIN, signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in December, the prices per liter of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) increased by P1, diesel by P2.50, and gasoline by P2.65 as a result of higher excise tax rates.

The Department of Energy intends to make a recommendation suspending the reformed excise tax rates on petroleum products if the average price of crude oil would reach $80 per barrel.

Magdalo party-list representative Gary Alejano has called for an immediate review of the TRAIN law in view of rising fuel prices, while Senator Bam Aquino filed a bill restoring his earlier proposal to give the government the authority to stop the implementation of TRAIN once inflation breaches the government target. — BAP, GMA News