By
Jonathan L. Mayuga- January 9, 2018
The increase in
imported coal tax under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN)
Act will not be felt by power producers, but by power consumers, the
group Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham) warned
on Tuesday.
In a news statement,
Finesa Cosico, secretary-general of Agham, said electricity consumers are at
the losing end of the deal with the imposition of the increased coal tax under
the tax-reform package offered under TRAIN.
“They [electricity
consumers] will be burdened with higher electricity rates despite standing to
gain no real benefit from the supposed environmental regulation,” she added.
Cosico added that,
under the government’s tax-reform program, the coal tax will increase from the
current P10 per metric ton in a 50-100-150 hike scheme for three years, with
the P50 increase slated this year.
Quoting the Department
of Energy (DOE), she said the coal tax, an excise tax, is classified as a
pass-on charge to consumers under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act
(Epira), the law that liberalized the country’s energy industry.
“As a pass-on charge,
the coal tax will put the entire burden of rising power costs on consumers
instead of taxing big-time coal businesses. As such, it will not inhibit the
increase of coal-fired power plants,” she said.
She also debunked the
proponents’ assertion that the coal tax is a step toward meeting the country’s
carbon-emission limits, saying pollution will remain at business-as-usual,
notwitstanding with its full implementation.
“The coal tax does not
change the fact that coal is still a cheap but [a] dirty energy resource. It
also does not change the Duterte [administration’s] framework of using coal as
the primary source in the country’s energy mix,” Cosico said.
The group is demanding
the reorientation of the coal tax as a charge to be carried by corporations and
called for the repeal of the Epira, which, it said, has allowed the phenomenon
of such pass-on provision.
“We also call for the
redistribution of the energy mix away from the ‘pollutive coal’ to the
indigenous energy resources abundant in the country,” Cosico said.
An activist group
earlier criticized government officials for insisting that the new tax
imposition under TRAIN will have minimal and temporary effects on the prices of
commodities and will benefit the rich and poor alike.
The Samahan ng
Progresibong Kabataan (Spark) branded as “malicious and deceptive” the
statements issued by Secretary Ramon M. Lopez of the trade department and
Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. against those who oppose the new tax
package.
The group said the two
officials are the ones spreading misinformation by downplaying the adverse
effects of TRAIN and by making it seem “justified and impartial.”
“They must admit that
TRAIN, like all indirect taxes, are pass-on impositions. Manufacturers of goods
and service providers shall simply make their clients bear their tax
obligations,” Spark contented.
The youth activists
challenged both Lopez and Roque “to live even for a day on minimum wage so they
may know firsthand what more than 12 million Filipinos will suffer once TRAIN
is fully in motion.”
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