The House Committee on Ways and Means has passed the proposal to increase the discount for senior citizens on water and electricity bills to 15 percent.
In a shared post of Senior Citizens Partylist - Cong. Ompong Ordanes Facebook Page, citing Ikot.PH's article, Senior Citizen Party-list Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes said the House committee on ways and means has approved the increase to 15 percent the discount in electricity and water utilities monthly billings.
Under the bill, residents whose electricity consumption does not exceed 100 kilowatt hours per month and only 30 cubic meters of water will be given a discount.
However, according to Ordanes, they decided not to give a discount on the value-added tax (VAT) for the electricity and water consumption of senior citizens because of the amount of lost revenue to the government.
“The original proposal in substitute bill consolidating 8 bills was 10% discount, but this was increased to 15% after it was conceded that the proposed value added tax (VAT) exemption would result in about P3.1 billion in revenue losses for the national government, so the VAT exemption was dropped and the discount was raised to 15%,” the lawmaker said.
Ordanes sponsored the proposal in the House Committee on Ways and Means that aims to increase the assistance that senior citizens receives in the midst of the continuous increase in the price of goods.
