VAT -- An Obsession
Being obsessed with the issue of the value-added-tax or VAT, I read with a sense of disgust/despair the SONA (State of the Nation Address) of 28 July 2008.
Our mahal na mahal (very costly) president Gloria Arroyo, in her SONA, insists that she will not remove the value-added-tax or VAT on fuel oil because only the rich, who pays 84 percent of the collected revenues, will benefit, and not the middle class and the poor, who shoulder the remaining 16 percent.
Let’s do a little arithmetic on a very micro segment of our population.
A rich man with 5 (five) cars -- family and service vehicles -- consumes an average of 20 liters of premium gasoline every day. The computation runs: 5 vehicles x 20 liters x P61.76 (unleaded LRA) x .12/1.12 (VAT) = 661.61. This means he is charged with VAT for a total of P661.61 every day. This is supposed to be the 84 percent collected for the day, which means that the total collection should be about P787.63. The remaining P126.02 of VAT should be shouldered by the middle class or the poor.
For this short short story, I shall focus more on the poor who try to earn a living with the use of fuel oil. My favorite poor are the tricycle drivers in my subdivision and the Mangyan families of Puerto Galera, Mindoro. How many tricycle drivers and Mangyan families must shoulder the P126.02 VAT every day?
Assume 4 (four) tricycle drivers plying their trade and consuming 4 liters of unleaded gasoline every day. The computation runs: 4 drivers x 4 liters x P60.65 per liter of gasoline x .12/1.12 (VAT) = P103.97. The VAT they collectively surrender to the government amounts to P103.97 every day. The balance of P22.05 must be paid by the Mangyans. Assume that 14 (fourteen) Mangyan families each consume one-fourth liter of kerosene every day for cooking only. Computing the VAT they must have spent: 14 families x 0.25 liters x P61.01 per liter of kerosene x .12/1.12 (VAT) = P22.8788.
So, the logic of Gloria Arroyo is to deny freeing 1 (one) rich man and 18 (eighteen) poor families from the burden of VAT. And to think that I have not included the use of a helicopter to the rich man, which aircraft Gloria uses extensively in spreading her gospel of mendicancy. Not being familiar with aircraft and what type of fuel they use, I got from the Internet that helicopters consume from 600 to 800 liters per hour of flight. If I included one helicopter being used by a rich man, that would have increased the number of poor families that are weighed in the government’s sense of imbalance. (I have not included the VAT imposed on instant noodles and other canned goods that are the usual fare of the poor, comparing them with the VAT imposed by high class restaurants on the rich. This would be an interesting topic since Gloria and her sycophants insist that food is not VATable. Even a package of instant noodles worth P5.90 is charged with VAT; I know because I buy them for my lunch.)
Gloria is correct: the rich man would be relieved of paying P661 a day, BUT would this fact make him happy and grateful to her? Tatawanan lang niya si Gloria. Percentage-wise who shoulders VAT more, the rich man who must be earning hundreds of thousand pesos or the tricycle driver with a few hundred pesos or the Mangyan with uneven earnings a day? And by the way, do these poor classes of Filipinos get anything from Gloria’s Katas ng VAT program? I doubt it. Ako nga na 77 years old na senior citizen ay hindi kasama sa mga eligible to get even the P18 a kilo of NFA rice. (At hindi naman ako mag-aaksaya ng araw upang pumila.)
Nabilog na naman ang mga utak natin ni Gloria.
Our mahal na mahal (very costly) president Gloria Arroyo, in her SONA, insists that she will not remove the value-added-tax or VAT on fuel oil because only the rich, who pays 84 percent of the collected revenues, will benefit, and not the middle class and the poor, who shoulder the remaining 16 percent.
Let’s do a little arithmetic on a very micro segment of our population.
A rich man with 5 (five) cars -- family and service vehicles -- consumes an average of 20 liters of premium gasoline every day. The computation runs: 5 vehicles x 20 liters x P61.76 (unleaded LRA) x .12/1.12 (VAT) = 661.61. This means he is charged with VAT for a total of P661.61 every day. This is supposed to be the 84 percent collected for the day, which means that the total collection should be about P787.63. The remaining P126.02 of VAT should be shouldered by the middle class or the poor.
For this short short story, I shall focus more on the poor who try to earn a living with the use of fuel oil. My favorite poor are the tricycle drivers in my subdivision and the Mangyan families of Puerto Galera, Mindoro. How many tricycle drivers and Mangyan families must shoulder the P126.02 VAT every day?
Assume 4 (four) tricycle drivers plying their trade and consuming 4 liters of unleaded gasoline every day. The computation runs: 4 drivers x 4 liters x P60.65 per liter of gasoline x .12/1.12 (VAT) = P103.97. The VAT they collectively surrender to the government amounts to P103.97 every day. The balance of P22.05 must be paid by the Mangyans. Assume that 14 (fourteen) Mangyan families each consume one-fourth liter of kerosene every day for cooking only. Computing the VAT they must have spent: 14 families x 0.25 liters x P61.01 per liter of kerosene x .12/1.12 (VAT) = P22.8788.
So, the logic of Gloria Arroyo is to deny freeing 1 (one) rich man and 18 (eighteen) poor families from the burden of VAT. And to think that I have not included the use of a helicopter to the rich man, which aircraft Gloria uses extensively in spreading her gospel of mendicancy. Not being familiar with aircraft and what type of fuel they use, I got from the Internet that helicopters consume from 600 to 800 liters per hour of flight. If I included one helicopter being used by a rich man, that would have increased the number of poor families that are weighed in the government’s sense of imbalance. (I have not included the VAT imposed on instant noodles and other canned goods that are the usual fare of the poor, comparing them with the VAT imposed by high class restaurants on the rich. This would be an interesting topic since Gloria and her sycophants insist that food is not VATable. Even a package of instant noodles worth P5.90 is charged with VAT; I know because I buy them for my lunch.)
Gloria is correct: the rich man would be relieved of paying P661 a day, BUT would this fact make him happy and grateful to her? Tatawanan lang niya si Gloria. Percentage-wise who shoulders VAT more, the rich man who must be earning hundreds of thousand pesos or the tricycle driver with a few hundred pesos or the Mangyan with uneven earnings a day? And by the way, do these poor classes of Filipinos get anything from Gloria’s Katas ng VAT program? I doubt it. Ako nga na 77 years old na senior citizen ay hindi kasama sa mga eligible to get even the P18 a kilo of NFA rice. (At hindi naman ako mag-aaksaya ng araw upang pumila.)
Nabilog na naman ang mga utak natin ni Gloria.
posted by myvja at
4:11 AM
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