Hundreds of government employees, under the public sector union federation Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) trooped to the Petron gas station along Philcoa last Aug. 8 to protest the continued implementation of the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on oil and the Downstream Oil Industry Regulation Law and to demand the government’s buyback of the petroleum company.
BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA
Contributed to Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 27, August 10-16, 2008
QUEZON CITY — Hundreds of government employees, under the public sector union federation Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) trooped to the Petron gas station along Philcoa last Aug. 8 to protest the continued implementation of the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on oil and the Downstream Oil Industry Regulation Law and to demand the government’s buyback of the petroleum company.
Union members of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), National Housing Authority (NHA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture (DA), Makati City and Quezon City governments, as well as members of GABRIELA-Kalookan City chapter, Anakbayan-Kalookan and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), joined the said rally.
“The call for buyback is a call for the government to regain its control over prices by selling petroleum products of the once government-owned corporation at much cheaper rates,” says Rose Nartates of the Consolidated Union of Employees (CUE), the employees’ union of the NHA.
Aside from the buyback, the militant groups believe that the repeal of Republic Act (R.A.) 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, passed under the Ramos regime, will contribute to further bringing down oil prices.
“This law had been abused by the oil companies in pricing their products, due to the provisions [of the law] that give them the leeway in adjusting the prices of petrol in line with the so-called “international market’s contract price,” even if the petrol that they are selling is an old stock, bought at a lower price,” Courage national president Ferdinand R. Gaite said in his speech.
Although the government demanded that the books of the so-called Big Three — Petron, Shell and Caltex — be subjected into scrutiny, Gaite believes that the Arroyo administration is just doing this for show.
Gaite also refuted the claims of the newly-installed National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief, former Sen. Ralph G. Recto that suspending the 12-percent VAT on oil can bring enormous harm to the country’s economy and would result to investors’ withdrawal of capital.
“It is not true that scrapping the VAT on petroleum products can cause a very negative effect on the country’s economy as a whole for there are still existing taxes that the government can use in funding its different projects. But the fact that the government is profiting more from higher oil prices because of the higher VAT collection may be the reason why the Arroyo government is very hesitant about scrapping that 12 percent (tax on oil),” said Gaite. Contributed to (Bulatlat.com)
