AND now the bad news from the Bureau of Internal Revenue: Government is slowly but steadily compiling all data on those tingi[ (retail) load system of telcos for cellphones for a more comprehensive tax measure that would shore up further revenue collection (outside of the 12% RVAT).

The good news: It would take a long time (read: eternity) before they could really tag the individual or sari-sari store retailers of cellphone loads and subject these to tax.

That is why they’re content for the moment to just tag “at source” the two (three?) giant telcos Globe and Smart and their second or third line of big dealers whose combined sales alone already runs to billions.

This much was gleaned during last Friday’s Advocacy Forum on the Expanded Value Added Tax (Expanded or Reformed, whatever) at the Pines View Hotel in Baguio City. Two very capable speakers, Polangui, Abay’s Rep. Jose Clemente Salceda, Jr, yup, the grandiloquent Joey Sal, chair of the House appropriations committee and National BIR office’s Assistant Commissioner Lucita Rodriguez gave a fine presentation of the EVAT from the collection and expenditure perspectives.

Stripped of all the verbiage and Salceda’s witty asides at his and his Lola’s expense (and at some point, that of a couple or so inquisitive mediamen and government types on the floor too), the participants got a good fill of government’s (that is, the House’s) plan, intention, design or all of the above, for the added collections from the EVAT.

Salceda rattled off, corporate boardroom-like, aided by a powerpoint prez the beneficiary-programs of the EVAT: wage increases (13.5 B), new teachers (2.7B), high school vouchers system (2.5B), rural infra with 5B for Kilos Asenso (implementable by the LGUs) and a separate 3B for Kalayaang Barangay (for the barangays to play, er, use); PHIC or health insurance (2.9B), Food for School (1.2B) and on down the line including flood mitigation.

The key consideration for the selection of the key growth programs being, in Bicolano Joey’s words, their being “monitorable” by the people and well-meaning groups in communities right down there where the expenses are supposed to be made. 

Also, we surmise, to keep some politicians from exploiting government funds for their own political ends as when Salceda says people, especially indigents, “do not have to go to a politician to get a health insurance card” but simply get a certification from the social welfare offices about their indigency and just present this to PhilHealth to immediately get their cards. That’s very verifiable and accessible government service, if you ever saw one, he intones.

More and more, after having heard GMA speak in various places in the region earlier, we thought Salceda was just parroting the woman from Lubao and Binalonan (and some other places in the South) on the latter’s growth-driven vision. Or, was it actually Joey Salceda ventriloquizing GMA on those economic theorems? 

Who’s selling what to whom?

The first 10 correct answers sent to this blog get, what else but, tax-free Philhealth cards from CachuPingcoy Duque!