HEADLINE inflation continued to move at a faster rate of 4.5 percent last April, as against 4.3 percent March and 3.2 percent in April 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Friday.
“It’s the fastest since Nov. 2011 when inflation hit 4.7 percent,” said Guian Angelo Dumalagan, market economist at Land Bank of the Philippines.
“The rise in inflation is expected, given the recent hike in excise taxes, the depreciation of the peso, and the surge in oil prices,” Dumalagan noted.
Headline inflation is the rate of inflation that includes prices that change a lot, for instance, those of food and energy.
Meanwhile, Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV Friday urged the government to protect Filipinos from killer combo of rising prices and unemployment.
He branded the spike in prices of goods and the rising unemployment a killer combo that needed to be addressed immediately.
“Let us not knock out the Filipino families from the killer combo of rising pices of goods and the lack of jobs,” said Aquino, one of only four senators who voted against the ratification of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act.
A recent Pulse Asia survey indicated that 98 percent of respondents claimed the prices of basic goods they usually purchase have increased due to the tax reform law, and around 86 percent said they were strongly affected by the prices increases.
In addition, a latest survey by SWS showed that the number of unemployment Filipinos rose to 10.9 million, the highest since 2016. Macon Ramos-Araneta
“The effects of TRAIN is not joke to Filipinos so we are objecting to this,” strsssed Aquino.
Aquino said he would present stories of Filipinos affected by the TRAIN Act from the series of community dialogues that he conducted in different parts of the country when the Senate conducts a hearing on the tax reform program on May 9 (Wednesday).
He also urged Congress not to move forward with TRAIN 2, as it might exacerbate the problem of unemployment by removing incentives for certain businesses.
He has filed Proposed Senate Resolution No. 704, calling for a review of the TRAIN Act, claiming it greatly contributes to the increase in prices of goods and services that burdens Filipinos, mostly the poor.
Esrlier, the senator warned that employment of many Filipinos would be on the line once the government pushes the enactment of the second tax reform package, which aims to remove the tax incentives being enjoyed by certain firms.
“After the increase in prices of goods and services, the government will put the jobs of many Filipinos in peril by removing incentives to some businesses,” he said.
He stressed that if the tax incentives being given to Peza-accredited firms were removed, many companies would be forced to close shop, affecting the employment of many Filipinos.
Also, he said investors eyeing to put up shops in economic zones would shelve their plan once the second part of the government’s tax package was enacted.
He called on the government to further study the impact of the second tax package to Filipinos, saying the effects of the initial package have burdened the public with high prices of goods and services.
In a latest survey by Pulse Asia, 98 percent of 1,200 respondents claimed the prices of basic goods they usually purchase have increased since January of this year due to the TRAIN Act.
Around 86 percent of respondents said they were strongly affected by the increase in prices of goods, 13 percent were “somewhat affected,” and only one percent said they were not affected at all.
“The government should first consider reviewing the TRAIN Law before inflicting additional burden with the passage of the second package,” said Aquino.
Aquino has filed Senate Resolution No. 704, calling on the appropriate Senate Committees to conduct a review of the TRAIN Law, claiming it greatly contributed to the increase in prices of goods and services that burdens Filipinos, especially the poor.
He also filed Senate Resolution No. 597, urging the appropriate Senate committee to scrutinize the implementation of the unconditional cash transfer to ensure that it was sufficient to cover the increase in prices of goods and other services.