EVAT

August 5, 2008

AS the whole country braces for the implementation of the Expanded Value-Added Tax (EVAT) today, militant, transport and multi-sectoral groups vowed to stage more protest rallies calling for Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down.

This developed as IBON Facts and Figures reported that oil firms continue to overprice oil products and that already there was a P1.92 per liter “over-recovery” last October amid other price hikes and VAT.

Transportation groups – Transportation Federation of Cagayan de Oro (Trafeco) led by Virgilio Valmoria and Solidarity Transport Alliance in Region 10 (STAREX) led by Armand Naul – both vowed separately to stage a crippling transport pahulay.

Valmoria said he is even leaving tomorrow to their National Transport Union (NTU) headquarters in Manila to properly coordinate their local efforts here in the region.

Naul for his part said their group is now coordinating with other sectors also to stage a transport strike.

“People knew the adverse effects. We upon them to join the call of dissent from the majority,” he said.

Nero Vallar for his part said though they would not be staging any protest rally today, there would be waves after waves of protests against the EVAT will be staged this month.

“Wala pa mi plano ugma. But in this coming days a series of activities will be staged against GMA’s EVAT. We believe that EVAT is like a dagger that GMA is strucking to her own heart. In the quest to retain in power and serve her foreign master she take the political suicide,” he said.

Meanwhile, IBON reported that if the continued oil price hikes and the pending implementation of the VAT on petroleum products was not enough of a burden, oil companies continue to impose unreasonable price increases on the public.

It revealed that the pump price of various petroleum products should have been reduced by around 92 centavos per liter this month instead of a P1-per liter oil price increase implemented by the oil firms, considering the decrease in Dubai crude price and the improvement in the peso-dollar exchange rate.

“The average price of Dubai crude in October of $54.47 per barrel is $2.07 lower than its September average of $56.54 per barrel while the value of the peso against the US dollar recovered by 30 centavos from P56.14 to P55.84 during the same period,” its report reads.

“Considering that for October, a one-dollar change in Dubai crude and a one-peso adjustment in the foreign exchange (FOREX) each translates to a 39-centavo adjustment in the pump price of oil products, oil companies should have implemented a rollback of 92 centavos per liter. But actual adjustments hiked prices by P1 per liter, which means that oil firms have over-recovered around P1.92 per liter for this month,” the report adds.

Overall, IBON said diesel and kerosene pump prices are overpriced by P1.12 per liter since January, which already offsets the under-recovery of the oil firms in the previous months.

“Extending the comparison between the ideal and the actual price adjustments to January 2000 until the latest adjustments this month, diesel is overpriced by as much as P4.79 per liter,” it said

“All these underscore the fact that the price of oil products, in particular diesel, which comprises 37% of the domestic market, can still be rolled back by a substantial amount contrary to the repeated claims of the oil companies and the Energy department that pump prices will not ease up until the end of the year.”

In their statement, IBON asserts that the price of diesel should be rolled back by P4.79 per liter to compensate for the overcharging of the oil companies from January 2000 to October 2005.

It states that such amount is even much smaller than the actual overpricing of the oil firms, principally the local subsidiaries of giant transnational corporations (TNCs) that dominate the local and global market.

“The estimated overpricing of IBON does not yet include the overcharging in the production and importation of petroleum, which the think tank argues is prevalent in the global market because of the commanding position of the oil TNCs over the whole industry,” it said.

“Such domination is the major reason why IBON believes that deregulating the local downstream oil industry is wrong. The government should not allow the oil TNCs to determine by themselves the pump price of their products because this system merely gives them a greater opportunity to manipulate the price of oil– at the expense of the consuming public and the economy.”

IBON suggests as an alternative is to push for a policy of strong state regulation on the oil industry through a system of centralized procurement of imported oil, maintaining a buffer fund and supply, de-privatization of Petron, and stronger state control over the exploration, development, and utilization of local petroleum resources, among others. By Lizanilla J. Amarga (2006)

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Written by admin · Filed Under Cagayan de Oro