May 10, 2018

Senators Want TRAIN Law Suspended; Government Says, Please No


Senator Bam Aquino is now pushing for the suspension of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN Law, The Philippine STAR reports. With inflation levels rising to 4.5 percent, the fastest in five years, it’s sending alarm bells in the legislative that they didn’t fully understand the full implication of TRAIN.

The report quotes Aquino as saying:
“We need a mechanism that can help us suspend this. We should put a halt to it. Let’s not allow prices of goods and services to increase further,” Aquino said in Filipino in an interview. 
“I hope I will get the support here in the Senate to push for this measure to give our government flexibility to suspend excise taxes if the prices of goods and services increase too much,” he added.
Aquino, who voted against the TRAIN says that the senate’s version of the bill empowers the government to suspension its implementation in the case of high inflation. That clause, however, was struck out in the finalized version of the law.

For his part, Senator Win Gatchalian says that one more quarter is needed to determine whether TRAIN is to be suspended or not.

Responding to the senator’s wish to suspend TRAIN, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that “suspending the law will do more harm than good.”

Diokno says that the suspension of TRAIN might derail the Duterte Administration’s ambitious infrastructure projects and “could upset the government’s revenue projections and tax collection efforts.”

Source: The Philippine STAR

42 comments:

  1. Rodrigo Dutae is one of the worst nightmares that ever happened to our beloved Philippines.

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    Replies
    1. Have you looked yourself in the mirror and asked yourself what deeds have you done to contribute to the development of our country? That's right. I bet you have not done such things.

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    2. The citizen is the worst thing that happened on this land. Pride, stubborn, no discipline, hypocrite telenovela and social media addicts.

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    3. Anon 3:26
      Yes i always look at myself in the mirror and ask myself what have i done to contribute to our country. I am a law abiding citizen, I finished school, passed the board exams right on the first take, pay my taxes on time, i help people with their diseases and be of service to them, uplift the lives of my employee(s), help medical/dental missions in terms of finances and manpower, family and personally has helped the less fortunate ones through church donations for several decades now, family shouldered the multi million renovation of a church in Leyte but was unfortunately partly destroyed by typhoon yolanda, etc etc....

      Yeah right, you bet your face that i haven't done any positive thing to contribute to this country.

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    4. Really? All we really know about you is your obsession with the civic RS and your "oh so powerful" 3.5L V6 camry that you boast. You can spew BS out your mouth all day long but you can't prove to us that you did s*** for the country. It's the internet for God' sake! You can be whoever you are.

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    5. Nobody gives a sh*t whatever you think. He asked me what i've done, i simply answered straight up. How am i not surprised to see a ad hominem response.

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    6. And nobody really believes you. O sige nga, pakitaan mo nga kami ng proof na nagawa mo yang mga yan. Ikaw na lang din kaya mag presidente sa sunod? Instead of b****ing and whining mag suggest ka anong pwede gawin, sige nga.

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    7. Oh sure, im open but you will shoulder whatever expenses to be incurred if needed when proving it, as in 100%.

      Suggest anong pwedeng gawin? Eh nasa harap na nga mismo ni Dutae yung offer ng Japan ng lower interest rates sa loan para sa Build build build program as compared sa China, bakit China pa din pinili nya considering mas malaki yun? At bakit todo tanggol nya sa China kahit inagawa na yung WPS sa atin?

      At saan nya kukunin yung pambayad sa loan at BIG INTEREST sa China? Eh di saan pa, sa atin mga Pinoy via TRAIN LAW. Maging Pro country kayo oy, hindi pro politician.

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    8. Di na kailangan gumasto para magbigay ng proof. Madali lang yan, bigay ka ng link sa photos o news articles kung meron man na magpapatunay na nagawa mo yang mga yan.

      Strategy yan. Building foreign relationships ang ginagawa niya malamang. Alam niya na malakas at progressive ang China. Mag isip ka ng long term effect, wag puro short term lang. Pinaguusapan at pinagiisipan nila yan malamang, wag mo sabihing mas matalino ka kaysa sa buong office ng presidente?

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    9. Hindi lahat ng yun may picture, part na ng profession at social responsibility yun. Kaya nga yung walang picture handa ako patunayan in actual, pupuntahan sa lugar mismo pero sagot mo 100% kung anong expenses ang mai-incur. And im not dumb to display it here.

      Hindi ako mas magaling sa Presidente, pero HINDI AKO TRAYDOR sa bayan ko. At hindi ko rin ibabaon ang bayan ko sa mas malaking utang lalong lalo na sa kalaban pa natin, kung meron naman nag ooffer ng mas maliit na interest. Japan ho willing magpautang ng mas maliit na interest, Japan.

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    10. Tama ka diyan. Hindoterte is Juan de la Cruz's bangungot.

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    11. ^ Indeed sir, he is Juan Dela Cruz bangungot.

      Our debt to China currently stands at
      $167 Billion US Dollars which is estimated to go as high as $452 Billion US Dollars. This is the computation by no less than Budget Secretary Denjamin Diokno. Binaon tayo ni Rodrigo Dutae sa utang dahil sa pagka ambisyoso at mayabang nya na wala sa lugar.

      Source: Forbes.com

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  2. Probably remove the TRAIN law on fuel. Whether they like it or not, this is the main culprit of the rising prices of everyday commodities and other necessities. Also, for hell sake, increase more the prices of brand new vehicles if and only if Philippines has a good public mass transport system! What are infrastructure if majority will become more poor! Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

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    1. This. A lot of blind followers doesn't realize this.

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    2. Dumba**es. The increase in fuel price is not because of TRAIN law. Fuel has become more expensive worldwide if you haven't noticed. Don't blame it on the TRAIN law or the government, blame the guys producing those fuels.

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    3. Theyre putting tax on fuels. That is also contributory. And by next year they plan to add more taxes to it. Lets not be blinded by Duterte's administration. Sure he did good things but Train isnt one of it.

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    4. Ok sure, let's say the TRAIN law slightly affected the fuel prices but the main factor in the increase is because of the worlwide inflation on fuel prices.

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    5. Fuel tax is stipulated in the TRAIN LAW, it's set to increase from 2018 up to 2020. Expect local fuel prices to reach in the 70's by 2020. Expect more Filipinos to get poorer, expect more companies to lay off their employees (Coca Cola has actually laid off a number of their employees already), expect more Foreign companies to leave our country and lastly, expect your Meralco bills to shot up further.

      All hail Rodrigo Dutae.

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    6. True that Anonymous. Almost 3 pesos added to gasoline and diesel per liter. And they plan to increase it some more by next year until 2020. This one is the real culprit here stop blaming inflation on fuel prices. Philippines was able to endure changes in fuel prices before. With TRAIN we lost that flexibility to accomodate fluctuations. Now were getting hit with rising prices of commodities.

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    7. Philippines was able to endure fuel price increases? Nasaan ka ba dati nung umabot lagpas ng P50 at halos umabot na nga ng P60 ang fuel price? Do not blaim the TRAIN law, major factor pa din ang inflation ng fuel price.

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    8. The sad part about this is that the government has played well of letting the people know that there would be minimum impact on the TRAIN law implemented on fuel. Now, who's getting the crunch of this? A percetage of rich class and middle class with good paying jobs? Certainly not. But majority of semi-mid-to-low class who are at least 90% of the Philippines population. Almost at the mid of 2018, get ready for the round of additional TRAIN law on fuel on the onset of 2019. Yeah, there's this international fluctuation on fuel prices, but if the 3 pesos TRAIN tax was not included, average price of gasoline for example in Metro Manila would just be around 49-50 pesos. So, tell me, who's the dumbass now???

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    9. Pero hnd permanent ung 60pesos na un. But this here is permanent increase irregardless of fluctuations. You must be a special kind of stupid not to blame TRAIN here. Maybe you'll come into senses when they slap you the 2019 fuel taxes.

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    10. Ang dali sabihin na ung TRAIN law ang dahilan sa increase ng price sa commodities, but have you really done the Math?

      Let's say a truck carrying a ton of grapes going from point A to point B spent 100 liters of Gas.
      3(train tax) x 100 = 300 pesos increase ng fuel cost.
      Will this 300 additional fuel cost justifies the 30 - 80 pesos / kilo increase of grape prices these days?

      That's a freaking 50,000 PHP additional profit basing from a 50 pesos increase of grape price (average).

      Obviously someone is making lots of profit in this and is just conveniently pointing the finger to TRAIN.

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    11. But that's not the point. The point is the extreme increase on fuel prices is to be blamed mainly on the inflation dumb***. Maliit lang dagdag ng TRAIN law sa fuel price, permanent o hindi. Stop whining. Para sa mga proyekto din naman to.

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    12. Did you ever consider in that small brain of yours the commodities needed to grow those grapes? The salary increase that you pay to your workers because of TRAIN? I guess youre not that smart if youre just eye balling on fuel. Increase in fuel cost is a chain reaction.

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    13. What about the increased taxes that a grape farmer pays quarterly and annually? Remember they dont benefit from TRAIN because they are self employed Add those up and lets see your profit.

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    14. Paki bigay na lang pangalan ninyo dito. Para sa susunod na eleksyon kayo na iboboto namin. Ang gagaling at tatalino niyo naman.

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    15. Ang tataba talaga ng utak ng mga iba rito, nakakainis lang... Fuel cost normally reflects on logistics/shipping pero kung yung isang manufacturing company relies fuel on other aspects like manufacturing, operations as such. And it has an overall effect from the raw materials to selling of the end product. Palibhasa kasi yung iba rito, kung makapagsalita, eto kasi apektado ng lintek na TRAIN law na yan. Kayo na ang magaling!

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  3. Hope you can remove the Oppo ads in your site. Kinda annoying that it pops up every time you click an article to read.

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  4. Very Smart EconomistMay 10, 2018 at 4:02 PM

    What a fucking imbecile.

    Does Bam really think prices would rollback magically once TRAIN has been repealed?

    TRAIN has already shown that higher prices are tolerable for consumers. Consumers can grumble and whine all they want but their actions speak for themselves: they'd still buy a product at TRAIN prices.

    Thus there would be no reason for manufacturers to rollback prices. If it sells at a higher price and their market shares don't diminish, there is no reason for them to rollback prices. Such is how the invisible hand of the market operates whether you like it or not. The producers have the freedom to set their prices.

    Speaking for the consumers, do they want to revert to paying higher income tax? I bet not, but this is something they don't have the freedom of doing.

    So imagine what kind of mess will this be if TRAIN is repealed. You cannot assure that prices will go down but rest assured, your incomes will go down.

    Inflation will spike a lot harder.

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    Replies
    1. Hey @sshole...do consumers have any choice but to buy these TRAIN taxed goods?

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    2. Not everyone is employed. Small to medium Business owners are the ones taking the brunt of this TRAIN law so you can take home your increased salary.

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    3. Hey fucking imbecile. Ang galing mo magsalita ah. Maraming apektado sa TRAIN law na ito at malamang isa ka lang sa mga nakinabang ng law na ito. Di lang makapagreklamo ang karamihan dahil di rin naman papansinin ng gobyerno.

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  5. Duterte has done a lot already compared to previous admin. Though he's not perfect. So this is one of his major imperfection. But at least, compensated by a lot of other stuff he has done in a span of how many yrs az president mr anon 1:54

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    Replies
    1. Lets not use that premise here. Sure Duterte did good. But this one needs not to be overlooked just because he did well in the past.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Okay lets say they repeal TRAIN law, would you expect the majority employed to pay their income tax back?

    Tingin mga reklamador dito mga negosyanteng nabawasan ng konti ang kita. There are alot of ongoing projects right now, you repeal TRAIn and you bogged down the projects. Tapos pag nag fail si Duterte ulit sisisihin.

    Very transparent naman ang Govt kung san napupunta ang tax ng mga tao, maliban nalang kung nagbubulagbulagan lang. Let the CB manage the inflation, we will weather this out, ganyang ganyan din nung pinasa yung VAT and now everyone forgets it.

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    1. Diyan lang naman magaling yung karamihan. Puro reklamo. Pareho lang yan sa mga mahilig mag-rally. Ang pinagkaiba lang nila, mas tamad pa sila kasi hanggang keyboard lang sila.

      Kahit sino pa maupong presidente, reklamo lang alam ng mga 'yan. Kaya nga di umuunlad Pilipinas dahil mas maraming taong ganyan mag-isip.

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    2. Oo yan ang problema sa kanila. Puro reklamo tapos walang ginagawang solusyon. Sila na lang sana tumakbo. Nag mamagaling kasi yang mga yan. Lalo na yung isa dun sa taas na nag comment din, nakapag graduate lang at nag charity work konte, mas magaling na daw siya sa presidente.

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    3. Say hello to our huge debts to our enemy with high interest rates that'll take several generations for us to pay. Read

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/anderscorr/2017/05/13/new-philippine-debt-of-167-billion-could-balloon-to-452-billion-china-will-benefit/#14bcf9762fb6

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    4. CABINET officials rejected claims that Chinese funding for infrastructure will burden the economy with too much debt, saying that tax reform will help the Philippines raise the bulk of the needed funds internally.
      http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=gov&8217t-denies-&145dutertenomics&8217-comes-with-heavy-debt-burden-&id=145251

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  8. 2.50 lang tinaas ng Gas at Diesel this 2018. Yung the rest movement na ng world prices yun. Pati kaya lang naman bagsak inflation rate nung panahon ni PNoy daming economic crises nun sa China pati EU kaya mahina demand sa krudo nun. Tapos over supply pa ng 2015 dahil sa oil shale ng US.

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