Jude Monteros Anecdote

TRAIN LAW ANECDOTE

 Ejercito express alarm when the March infaltion rate reached 4.3 percent,from the revised 3.8 percent in February.

''The economic managers should assess whether the increase in inflation is still manageable.Otherwise,implementation of TRAIN 1 should be suspended and restudied,''he said.

During the Senate deliberation of the TRAIN,both the Department of Finance and the National Economic Development Athority had claimed that the measure would likely raise the inflation level by(just) 0.7 percent this year.

The two agencies had even assured that the inflation rate would still be within the projected 2-4 percent target.

He added;''My worst nightmare about the TRAIN law has become a reality.I had warned this before that the TRAIN is inflationary in nature.The common people may not know inflation is,and they don't care.What they do know and what they care about is that prices of food and other necessities have all gone up.''

The idea of the tax reform was to decrease the personal income tax,giving the people more puchasing power.However,he said the rising prices of commodities would negate the positive impacts of TRAIN law on income.

Ejercito said that the negative effect of the higher inflation rate is more felt by the bottom 30% of Filipino households.

In the House of Representative,Rep.Gary Alejano has filled a resolution calling for a review of the TRAIN law and its impact on ordinary Filipinos amid the current surge in inflation.