Consumer groups raise howl over 5-¢ text tax

MANILA, Philippines - Consumer groups raised a howl Wednesday over President Arroyo's approval of a five-centavo tax on text messaging Tuesday night. TXTPower convenor Anthony Ian Cruz said that despite Quezon City Rep. Danilo Suarez's claims the telecom firms will shoulder the tax, consumers will ultimately foot the bill. "Si Rep. Suarez marami dapat ipaliwanag sa ating lahat ... Kahit isang beses wala kaming natanggap na invitation. Ang consumer organization, walang inimbitahan sa kanyang pagdinig (Rep. Suarez has a lot of explaining to do. Consumer groups were never invited to hearings on the matter)," Cruz said in an interview on dzXL radio. An earlier dzXL report quoted Suarez as saying Mrs. Arroyo approved the text tax when he met with her Tuesday night. Suarez insisted it would be the telecom firms that will shoulder the tax. Cruz said they would conduct their own consultations with consumer groups. "Gagawa kami ng sariling consultation sa consumers. Malaking perwisyo ito sa consumer. Gusto ng gobyerno dagdag pahirap. Napakamanhid ni Pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (We will hold our own consultations. This is another burden on the consumer. This government wants to make us suffer. Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is insensitive to the people)," he said. Consumers Union of the Philippines commissioner Quirino Martinez, for his part, said this might be tantamount to curtailing people's rights. "Ultimately it will be charged to the consumers," he said. Last week, Suarez told three telecommunication companies to comply with a proposal compelling them to pay a five-centavo broad spectrum fee per text message to government or have their records opened for official scrutiny. Suarez's committee had earlier recommended that the cost of every text message be brought down from P1 to 50 centavos. Under the proposal, the National Telecommunications Commission will collect five centavos from text messages to acquire a metering system estimated to cost around $30 million – that will allow the agency and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to monitor telcos' messaging services. With an estimated 2 billion text messages being sent around the country everyday, the government can collect an P100 million every day, Suarez said. - GMANews.TV