THE chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means has revealed plans by the chamber to reduce the cost of electricity by imposing a one-time value added tax, aside from scrapping system loss charges.
Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo told a news conference Tuesday that based on his discussions with Speaker Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III and Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” A. Marcos lll, the plan is to levy the 12-percent VAT only on the generation side.
At present, he said VAT is imposed on three stages: generation, transmission, and distribution.
It is the end-user or consumer that eventually pays for the value added tax impost, he said.
“Tingnan natin kung saang areas, without reducing VAT necessarily, saan tayo puwedeng maka-reduce ng epekto nito sa ating mga kababayan,” he said.
“Ang isa diyan ay high time na rin talaga pag-aralan at itinutulak din natin na ang VAT sa kuryente ay hindi siya ipataw sa every stage ng elctricity process,” he added.
Quimbo reiterated that the VAT that is imposed in each of the three processes involved in producing and distributing electricity is borne by end-users, mostly households.
“Sa bawat step na yan ay nag-impose tayo ng 12 percent, so pagdating sa dulo, sa consumer, binabayaran niya lahat yun. So ang gusto natin ay the rational way to really impose VAT (on electricity) is impose lang natin siya dun sa generation side,” he said.
He did not say what is the net effect on the end-user of paying 12 percent on three stages, from generation to distribution.
He said House leaders want a “significant effect kapag one-time VA lang ang i-impose in the entire electricity process, dun lang sa generation side para makabawas talaga.”
In the case of the scrapping of electricity system loss charges, President Marcos Jr. specifically mentioned this in his SONA Monday.
Deputy Speaker Janette Garin of Iloilo said the House would aim to pass the bill removing such charges before the end of the year.
metrosundaily
