Women's group scores 'pasakit' imposed by tax reform on their sector
Published Jan 24, 2019 09:53 pm
By Chito Chavez
Militant group Center for Women Resources (CWR) warned that millions of women would become more impoverished in 2019 with the implementation of the second round of Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law this year.
Center for Women's Resources (Center for Women's Resources / FACEBOOK)
“Women have been consistently counted as one of the poorest sectors – with an average poverty incidence rate of 22.50 percent for the past decade – even without the TRAIN Law. With the first round of TRAIN Law implemented last year, women have already complained of being in dire straits. Now with the enforcement of the second round this year, their condition will be worse,” CWR executive director Jojo Guan said.
Even without the TRAIN Law, Guan said the most recent Poverty Census revealed that five out of nine basic sectors in the Philippines have higher poverty incidence than the general population.
These are farmers, fishermen, children, self-employed and unpaid family workers, and women.
Citing data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Guan said the magnitude of poor population in the country stands at 21.9 million meaning they “could not even afford to cover their basic food and non-food needs’’.
With this alarming PSA record, Guan said this means that nearly one in every five Filipinos is poor.
Recently, the CWR, in partnership with Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law, and Development (APWLD), has reviewed and monitored the progress of the Philippine government in achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The group said “among which is the SDG 10 on Reducing Inequalities that discusses on the situation of uneven development among Filipinos, particularly those who belong to the marginalized sectors.
The study also takes up how the government is addressing the pressing issues of the marginalized sectors in relation to reducing growing disparities.
CWR noted the result showed how rural women in poverty-stricken Aurora province, which recorded the highest poverty incidence rate in Central Luzon, cope during lean period due to joblessness, landlessness, and implementation of the first round of TRAIN Law.
One of the stories recorded by CWR in the research is the story of Sabrina, a housewife whose husband works as fisherman and tricycle driver.
To adapt to their worsening situation, Sabrina and her family practice ‘no earning, no eating’, which means that whenever there is no earning for the day, their family would only make do of water or nothing at all:
CWR has also recorded other women's woes on the high prices of rice, from P47 to P49 per kilo, which they could no longer afford to buy so they eat kamote or banana instead.
In 2018, inflation rate has soared from 3.4 percent in January to 6.7 percent in October, the highest in the past nine years.
As a result, the group said prices of rice has overwhelmingly increased since then.
“The rising prices of basic commodities and services will further sink Filipinos in deep poverty. The tax reform law only widens inequality instead of reducing it, contrary to what the Philippine government has committed to fulfill in the SGDs,” Guan noted.
The group maintained the impact of TRAIN Law will strike again as the second round of implementation of fuel excise tax hike is rolling out.
At present, CWR said only 22 percent or 1,951 gas stations out of 8,630 have implemented the second round of the fuel excise tax hike.
However, CWR said “there are already three rounds of oil price hikes this month which amounted to an increase of P 3.40 per liter on diesel and P 2.30 per liter on gasoline.
With these circumstances, CWR said “this means, oil prices are expected to increase tremendously once TRAIN is fully implemented this year’’.
“High prices affect women since they try to manage the household budget with the increasing expenditure but with no increase in the family’s meager income. An increase in food prices cripples the poor as the bulk of their income is spent on food. Now, they have to brace themselves for the worse with the second blow of TRAIN Law,” Guan insisted.
“The government's tagline of malasakit (concern) can never be felt with TRAIN Law. Pasakit (burden) is more appropriate. It is high-time to demand the government to ease the burden of the majority of poor Filipinos by repealing the TRAIN Law and by discontinuing the imposition of higher consumption taxes like fuel excise tax,” Guan concluded.
Center for Women's Resources (Center for Women's Resources / FACEBOOK)
“Women have been consistently counted as one of the poorest sectors – with an average poverty incidence rate of 22.50 percent for the past decade – even without the TRAIN Law. With the first round of TRAIN Law implemented last year, women have already complained of being in dire straits. Now with the enforcement of the second round this year, their condition will be worse,” CWR executive director Jojo Guan said.
Even without the TRAIN Law, Guan said the most recent Poverty Census revealed that five out of nine basic sectors in the Philippines have higher poverty incidence than the general population.
These are farmers, fishermen, children, self-employed and unpaid family workers, and women.
Citing data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Guan said the magnitude of poor population in the country stands at 21.9 million meaning they “could not even afford to cover their basic food and non-food needs’’.
With this alarming PSA record, Guan said this means that nearly one in every five Filipinos is poor.
Recently, the CWR, in partnership with Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law, and Development (APWLD), has reviewed and monitored the progress of the Philippine government in achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The group said “among which is the SDG 10 on Reducing Inequalities that discusses on the situation of uneven development among Filipinos, particularly those who belong to the marginalized sectors.
The study also takes up how the government is addressing the pressing issues of the marginalized sectors in relation to reducing growing disparities.
CWR noted the result showed how rural women in poverty-stricken Aurora province, which recorded the highest poverty incidence rate in Central Luzon, cope during lean period due to joblessness, landlessness, and implementation of the first round of TRAIN Law.
One of the stories recorded by CWR in the research is the story of Sabrina, a housewife whose husband works as fisherman and tricycle driver.
To adapt to their worsening situation, Sabrina and her family practice ‘no earning, no eating’, which means that whenever there is no earning for the day, their family would only make do of water or nothing at all:
CWR has also recorded other women's woes on the high prices of rice, from P47 to P49 per kilo, which they could no longer afford to buy so they eat kamote or banana instead.
In 2018, inflation rate has soared from 3.4 percent in January to 6.7 percent in October, the highest in the past nine years.
As a result, the group said prices of rice has overwhelmingly increased since then.
“The rising prices of basic commodities and services will further sink Filipinos in deep poverty. The tax reform law only widens inequality instead of reducing it, contrary to what the Philippine government has committed to fulfill in the SGDs,” Guan noted.
The group maintained the impact of TRAIN Law will strike again as the second round of implementation of fuel excise tax hike is rolling out.
At present, CWR said only 22 percent or 1,951 gas stations out of 8,630 have implemented the second round of the fuel excise tax hike.
However, CWR said “there are already three rounds of oil price hikes this month which amounted to an increase of P 3.40 per liter on diesel and P 2.30 per liter on gasoline.
With these circumstances, CWR said “this means, oil prices are expected to increase tremendously once TRAIN is fully implemented this year’’.
“High prices affect women since they try to manage the household budget with the increasing expenditure but with no increase in the family’s meager income. An increase in food prices cripples the poor as the bulk of their income is spent on food. Now, they have to brace themselves for the worse with the second blow of TRAIN Law,” Guan insisted.
“The government's tagline of malasakit (concern) can never be felt with TRAIN Law. Pasakit (burden) is more appropriate. It is high-time to demand the government to ease the burden of the majority of poor Filipinos by repealing the TRAIN Law and by discontinuing the imposition of higher consumption taxes like fuel excise tax,” Guan concluded.