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When the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentive Act (AFVI) was approved last January 29 after going through its third and final reading in the Senate, most of us breathed a huge sigh of relief. We’ve been holding our breath (pun intended) for a bill that promotes clean energy, clean air and green jobs, and the one authored by Ralph Recto seems almost perfect.
Basically, the bill seeks to exempt all hybrids and electric vehicles, as well as those powered by either CNG, LPG, wind, solar or any other approved alternative fuel, from excise tax and VAT, among other incentives, to bring the prices of a hybrid or electric vehicle to somewhere within the vicinity of its gasoline counterpart––which in the case of a Prius C, would be somewhere just under a million pesos.
And as a thank you for making a cleaner, greener choice, the bill seeks to reward you by dropping the Motor Vehicles User Charge (MVUC), which is a significant sum that is automatically built into your registration costs, as well as exempt your vehicle from coding. And as an added bonus, there’s even a provision for providing free parking in all new establishments.
Also, because the exemption of taxes include raw materials, it also allows local manufacturers to build affordable electric jeeps, tricycles and busses, dramatically reducing the deafening sounds of loud exhaust pipes and clattering diesel engines, and bringing us one step closer to that evasive electric dream of clean, fresh air.
“If the Bill finally will be passed into law, it will lure investors to choose the Philippines as a more viable country in the region, a measure that is crucial to the Electric Vehicle Industry’s launch as it passes currently a sensitive stage of development.” Rommel T. Juan, Chairman and President of the Electric Vehicle Industry Association of the Philippines, (EVAP), said in an official statement Monday.
So what’s the catch? Well, without a bicameral conference comittee, which is the final step before it is passed into law, the bill remains just that: a bill. And an extremely expensive one that none of us can afford to pay––but will eventually do so with our health, the earth, and our reputation as one of the most environmentally irresponsible countries on earth.
Which begs the question: If it is such a great law, and the Senate has already nominated senators who will constitute the Senate's Bicam members, why can't the House form theirs?
During an exchange of messages recently, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri told me “The Department of Finance says that they will lose an estimated 1 billion in tax revenues, but they don't see the potential of new industries that would be created because of this new law. New industries mean new jobs and more jobs for the people.”
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