Guidelines for P500 seniors, PWDs discount out soon

GUIDELINES on the P500 monthly discounts for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) will possibly be issued by the end of March, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

DTI Assistant Secretary Amanda Nograles said on Sunday that a public consultation was scheduled for next week and that the administrative order (AO) would be signed by the secretaries of the involved departments and implemented immediately.

“So, if we have a public consultation next week, we will collate all of the comments and try to reconcile everything. Hopefully, after that, we will come out with another revision of the joint administrative order,” said Nograles.

Senior citizens and PWDs will receive a higher monthly discount on groceries and other prime commodities worth P500 from the current P260 monthly discount.

This is equivalent to a weekly discount of P125 from the usual P65 per week.

The DTI, Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy will work together to draft the joint administrative order containing the proposed increase, allowing stakeholders to review the draft AO.

“After revisions based on the comments received, the order will be signed by the secretaries of the three departments with the aim of publishing it by the end of March and implementing it immediately,” said Nograles.

She also said that issues regarding the tax treatment of 20 percent senior citizen discounts for restaurants and services have also been raised with the department.

“It is clear that the 20 percent senior citizen discount for restaurants and services in the law is supposed to be treated as a tax deduction,” said Nograles.

However, she shat the law does not include the tax treatment for the 5 percent special discount on basic necessities and prime commodities.

She also noted the concerns of some retailers about the tax treatment of the 5 percent special discount.

However, Nograles said they already wrote to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, officially referring to them the issue of the tax treatment as it is within their mandate.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez proposed the 5-percent increase in discounts granted to senior citizens and PWDs on their weekly grocery purchases.