The automotive industry tapped a third party to conduct an independent study on the impact of the proposed excise tax hike on automotive vehicles.
Toyota Manufacturing Philippines Corp. vice chairman Alfred Ty said while the industry understood the revenue generating measures the government was trying to implement, “taxes should be tempered.”
“How bullish we will be depends on regulations like this. We understand the government program in reducing revenue in some segments and recovering it from other segments including the car industry,” he said.
“But in this industry, an increase of P5,000 in price per unit will result for [sales] volume to dip. At P10,000 to 20,000 price hike, people will start to think twice [of buying]. Now, if we are talking about 40 to 50 percent increase in prices, that is detrimental,” Ty said.
He said the government signified its intention to listen to automotive stakeholders, giving the players enough time to prepare a position paper.
“I hope we can have a transparent and open dialog and consider our point as well because it will save the industry. We just have to be able to share the information to balance all the positions presented, by government and by the industry,” Ty said.