TACLOBAN CITY- Despite several announcements from various government agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), food items have seen their prices increase due mainly to the implementation of a new tax law.
At the public market here, chicken seller Judy Rose Mortega said that she has to adjust to the prices of her items as her suppliers have raised their prices.
And because of the increased price of chicken, there were instances that she had more chicken unsold than disposed, she said.
“There are instances that I could not sell most of my chickens due to high price. This means my daily income has declined to the extent that I could not sustain our daily needs and I have two children who are still in school,” Mortega said.
According to her, she gets her chicken per kilogram at P133 from her suppliers and she sells them at P150, at least to just break even.
The increase of food and non-food items like gasoline was a result of the implementation of the TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) Law that took effect early this month.
The law aims to provide tax cuts to ordinary taxpayers but at the same time, raise needed funds for the various infrastructure projects being implemented by President Rodrigo Duterte.
For consumer Joel Panganbiron while he sees a good benefit of the law among small taxpayers, he also feels its impacts to buyers like him.
“I’m against that law because a lot of people whose income is barely enough to meet their daily expenses will suffer compared to those who have higher income,” he said. (IRISH A. CONCRENIO/ROSE ANN E. SALCEDA, EVSU Student Interns)
