Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on Thursday expressed high hopes that President Benigno Aquino III will soon sign the measure exempting persons with disabilities from the payment of 12 percent value-added tax on certain goods and services as a gesture of ‘malasakit’ to the Filipino.
Romualdez said his House Bill 1039 has been transmitted to the Office of the President in Malacañang March 2 and that an estimated three million PWDs all over the country await for the President’s action on the measure. “We should not lose hope. We do believe that our measure that promotes and upholds the rights and welfare of the PWDs will soon be signed into law by the President, we are positive about the President’s ‘malasakit’ to PWDs,” Romualdez, lawyer and president of the Philippine Constitution Association, said.
Romualdez said his bill, once enacted into law, will be an equalizing measure that would accord PWDs exactly the same privilege being enjoyed by senior citizens who are exempted from VAT payment.
To expedite the process of making the bill a law, the regular route is for the House Bills and Index Service transmitting the measure to the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office.
HB 1039 was ratified by the House of Representatives and the Senate before Congress adjourned for the Christmas break last December, and was signed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Senate President Franklin Drilon last February.
The proposed law grants 12-percent VAT exemption to PWDs on certain goods and services.
“My bill will put PWDs on equal footing with senior citizens who are already exempted from VAT payment on top of their 20 percent discount,” Romualdez, head of the House Independent Bloc, said.
Romualdez’s measure seeks to amend Republic act 7277, otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Persons with Disability as amended by RA 9442 giving PWDs 20-percent discount.
Earlier, various organizations of PWD demanded the House leadership headed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to transmit the bill to the Palace for immediate action.
Once enacted, the PWD bill would also allow the relatives, up to the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, taking care of handicapped measures to claim a tax deduction of P25,000 in their annual income tax.
“Persons with disability effectively enjoy only P12 for every P100 worth of good or service because the law does not exempt them from VAT, which is imposed on the net value of the good or service or 10 percent of the P80 after deducting P20, representing the 20 percent discount granted in RA 9442, for every P100 worth of good or service purchased,” Romualdez, a three-term congressman who is running for the Senate under a platform anchored on compassionate governance, earlier said.
Romualdez said the proposed VAT exemption shall apply on the following: medical and dental services; purchase of medicines in all drugstores; public railways, skyways and bus fare; admission fees charged by theaters, cinema houses, concert halls, circuses, carnivals and other places of culture, leisure and amusement; and all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments, restaurants, and recreation centers.