Workers say: VAT increase will throw us back in the stone-age era

Workers today stormed the senate grounds to press against the impending passage of the VAT hike bill.

"Does this mean our lawmakers are amenable to people living in the dark, eating food they can't even cook? The cost of living in Metro Manila alone is already somewhere north of P500, and continues to rise, therefore, a VAT rate increase will only end up being paid for by workers as this regressive tax finds its way to products that are socially sensitive," Edwin Bustillos, Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, said.

"Poor people who already cannot afford basic goods will be forced to cough up even more and should prices of products like gas for cooking and electricity rates shoot up because of the 12% VAT rate and the subsequent lifting of exemptions from this regressive scheme, people will not be able to afford them anymore," Bustillos explained.

"It is a sign of desperation and utter incompetence for the government to shore up its ailing finances by reaching deeper and deeper into the pockets of its citizens, as it makes no exceptions between rich and poor, and thus defeats the goal of an equitable taxation system," Bustillos added.

The labor group asked the government to fix first the problems of collection before thinking up of raising the VAT rate and said that VAT's supposed neutrality only works in advanced countries where collection and administration is efficient unlike in our country where our own context tells us that this policy only burdens consumers while it lets corrupt government officials get away with plunder.

APL demands the Senate to heed the workers call now before the poor majority will be virtually thrown back into the Dark Ages while calling on the people to stop VAT in its tracks and throw it instead into the dustbin of history.