By Jelly F, musico
MANILA, April 26 (PNA) – Senator Serge Osmena III on Sunday said he will push for the passage of his bill that removes the 12 percent value-added-tax or VAT on the electricity bills.
Osmena, chairman of the Senate committee on energy, filed Senate Bill 2714 which, if passed into law, would cut down by at least Php 200 the electricity bill of a household that consumes 200 kilowatt hours each month.
”It would be a big help. In an average bill, the reduction could reach Php 200 per household,” Osmena said in a radio dzBB interview.
Under his bill, Osmena proposed that the sale of electricity by distribution, generation and transmission companies and electric cooperatives should be exempted from the VAT.
He explained that the sale of electricity has no VAT when the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was passed in 2001.
”The electricity was included only in 2005 when the Extended VAT was passed,” the veteran lawmaker said.
When asked if his bill will be passed under the present 16th Congress, Osmena answered: “Well let’s see.”
The 16th Congress will resume on May 4 for the six remaining weeks of its second regular session and will resume again in July for its third and last regular session.
Osmena said he might use as election issue his proposal to remove VAT from electricity.
The Cebu senator, however, quickly emphasized that he has no plan to seek higher position in the 2016 national elections.
”I’m too old to run for president. I might just seek reelection in the Senate because I have policies that I want to finish like in banking and energy,” Osmena, also the current chairman of the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, said.
Osmena was elected senator in 1995 and re-elected in 2001 and 2010. (PNA)