A prominent disability organization has urged president Benigno Aquino III to sign into law a bill granting persons with disabilities (PWDs) exemption from the value added tax (VAT).
In an online petition posted last week on website change.org, Autism Society Philippines (ASP) called on the president to pass the bill “with the sense of urgency it deserves.”
Doing so would “cement the administration’s legacy of giving Filipinos with less in life, more in law,” said ASP, a nationwide organization dedicated to the well-being of persons with autism spectrum disorder. It has a membership of 10,000 which includes families, teachers, therapists, professionals and institutions. The group also has international linkages.
The bill, which last December passed the Senate and House of Representatives Bicameral Conference Committee, exempts PWDs from paying the 12 percent VAT. (See Bicam approves VAT exemption for PWDs)
The said exemption would come on top of the 20 percent discount on goods and services that PWDs are entitled to under the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.
More, the bill also gives a relative taking care of a PWD a P25,000 annual income tax deduction.
“This additional benefit for persons with disabilities is a welcome financial respite for families who live with autism — considering the national government bears very little, if at all, in the cost of delivery of quality autism services which we desperately need,” said ASP in its online petition.
Some 1.4 million Filipinos have disabilities, results of the 2010 census show.
Aquino has recently come under fire for his veto of a Congress-approved P2,000 increase in the Social Security System (SSS) monthly pension of private retirees.
In explaining the veto, Malacañang cited the dire financial consequences that would result from the increase in the monthly pension.
A Senate media release, citing the Department of Finance, pegs at P4 billion the estimated forgone revenue from the VAT exemption for PWDs.
Senator Sonny Angara, a sponsor of the bill and chair of the ways and means committee, however, said that “the benefits that will be enjoyed by the PWDs and their families from this measure far outweigh the supposed revenue loss to the government.”
The National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) has expressed its support for the ASP call.
“That’s a great move from one of the biggest groups of advocates in the Philippines, and the NCDA supports ASP on this call,” NCDA acting executive directorCarmen Zubiaga told VERA Files.
“We are calling on all other disability groups to join this call to the president (to) sign this bill,” Zubiaga said. (By Jake Soriano)