DTI hit for hiding real effects of new tax law
MABALACAT CITY — Anakpawis party-list Representative Ariel Casilao has criticized the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for undermining the effects of the new tax reform law.
Casilao at the same time urged the public not to be fooled by the DTI statement that hikes on basic goods are minimal.
“The DTI is clearly peddling fake news on the real effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) to the public. The minimal four percent increase on price of basic goods due to the new tax law claiming that manufactures only spent less than 10 percent of its production cost to transport their goods. This is out of touch to reality; manufacturers already refute this as they claimed there were various processes before the goods landed to grocery stores”, he said.
“The DTI is clearly peddling fake news on the real effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) to the public. The minimal four percent increase on price of basic goods due to the new tax law claiming that manufactures only spent less than 10 percent of its production cost to transport their goods. This is out of touch to reality; manufacturers already refute this as they claimed there were various processes before the goods landed to grocery stores”, he said.
The lawmaker also said the prices of basic services will automatically go up once the prices of oil products increased.
“Automatic yan, pag nagtaas ng presyo ang mga produktong petrolyo, magtataas na din ang presyo ng mga batayang bilihin at serbisyo. Kung kaya nakapagtataka ang pagtingin ng DTI o sadyang minamiliit nila ang malaking negatibong epekto ng pagtaas ng buwis para unti-unting tanggapin ng publiko,” Casilao said.
Example of TRAIN’s immediate effects are the filing of two petitions from the National Capital Region and Central Luzon-based transport group asking for P12 and P14 minimum fare hike respectively.
“The price hikes are real and it is coming hard mostly to minimum wage earners whose daily take home salary at present can hardly provide the basic needs of his/ her family. That is why spreading disinformation on the actual impact of the new tax law is basically an attempt of the DTI to sweep under the rug its negative impact especially to poor sectors,” Casilao said.