Consumer group files challenge to TRAIN law before Supreme Court

LABAN Konsyumer, Inc. (LKI), a consumer advocacy group, said it asked the Supreme Court to nullify the tax reform law, citing the “unwarranted increases” in excise taxes for coal, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene, which are among the basic commodities Filipinos depend on.

The group is asking that Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law be nullified because it “negatively affects millions of Filipino consumers, particularly those from the lowincome and poor families.”

In a statement, Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba, LKI president and former Department of Trade and Industry undersecretary for consumer protection, said the commodities are necessary for subsistence and Filipinos have no choice but to consume them regardless of cost.

He said, the provisions in question should be struck down as they impose a heavy burden on Filipinos from low- income and poor families, who make up the majority of the population.

The group said it filed its petition for certiorari with an application for a temporary restraining order, writ of preliminary injunction and/or status quo ante order before the high court on Monday. It said the TRAIN law violates the Constitution, which prescribes that taxation must be equitable and progressive.

LKI also said the tax reform violates the due process and equal protection of the law provisions of the Constitution, the rules on the origin of revenue laws, and the rules on quorum.

Mr. Dimagiba said LKI made its stand because “if not restrained now and later nullified,” the provisions of TRAIN “betray the very purpose for its enactment which is to provide, as much as possible, an equitable relief to a greater number of taxpayers and their families in order to improve the levels of disposable income since a tax on staples is a tax on the right of individuals to live.”

He also said the law, which took effect this year, “with its provisions authorizing the increase in excise taxes on kerosene, diesel, coal and LPG will only equalize any possible gains of the rationalization of personal income taxes, or worse, further beset those belonging to the poor and low-income families.”

He said the “inequity of the revised personal income taxation scheme” benefits only the higher income brackets at the expense of those earning P250,000 and below. He said in the old system, high- income earners enjoyed personal exemptions of only P50,000.

LKI said corporations or private entities will not be the ones to bear the new taxes as they would pass these on to consumers. It said “there is no hiding the fact that the increase in excise taxes will hit low-income and poor families the hardest.” —