Aquino not keen on suspending E-VAT on oil products

Amid the rising prices of oil products, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III said he is more inclined to giving “exemptions" to the public transportation sector and not on suspending the expanded value added tax on oil products. “Pwede bang magbigay ng exemption sa kunwari mga public transportation sector para diretsuhang mapakinabangan ng taumbayan," Aquino said during an informal interaction with the media at Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore Thursday night. The giving of exemptions, which he did not elaborate, needs to be studied further, he said. Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras earlier bared proposals to pour into the transport sector the government’s collections from the VAT on petroleum products which will be called a relief fund. The President believed the suspension of VAT on oil will not have a big impact on the people. “Hindi po maliwanag sa akin na diretsuhan na pag sinuspend ang VAT merong kaukulang pakinabang sa pangkalahatan," he said. He said the government stands to lose P5-billion in revenues which would in turn result in the ballooning of deficit as it would need to source funds to finance its programs and projects. The President added that suspending the EVAT on fuel would only give a false sense of security that the government is doing something as “artificially maintaining lower fuel prices would only discourage people from changing their habits of using fuel and save less." Aquino said the primary focus of the government now is the certainty of supply for at least two months. “We are targeting at least 60 days on hand, yung mga nasa refineries, yung mga nasa private individuals, basta yung kabuuan ng ating oil supply pati na yung government reserves will be 60 days. Yung two-month stock is perceived as enough of a buffer or cushion against the vagaries of the supply," he said. Malacañang said Thursday that the departments of energy, finance, and budget and management are now studying all proposals to cushion oil price spikes with the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. – VVP, GMA News