MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte will always submit to the recommendation of the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on whether to suspend the second tranche of oil excise tax in 2019, Malacañang said on Thursday.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte received the DBCC’s recommendation on the suspension of fuel excise tax after the oil prices in the world market soared to USD80 per barrel.
“It depends on the President. But most likely, since that is the recommendation and he always defer to the recommendation of his people then most likely he will do it,” Panelo said in a Palace press briefing.
Panelo said Duterte is still reviewing the recommendation of the government’s economic managers to suspend another PHP2 per liter excise tax starting in January next year.
“Let’s just wait for an announcement through an executive issuance in this regard,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said the DBCC is also monitoring if global oil price will stay at USD80 per barrel in the two remaining two months of the year.
“Mayroon kasing sinasabi sila na titingnan muna iyong three months. Depende kasi sa global price ng oil. Kung bumagsak, so hindi na kailangan — so depende (They have been saying that they will monitor the three months. It depends on global price of oil. If I will drop, there’s no need. So, it depends),” Panelo said.
The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law provides a clause for automatic suspension “when the average Dubai crude oil price based on Mean of Platts Singapore for three months prior to the scheduled increase of the month reaches or exceeds USD80 per barrel.” (/PNA)
