A measure granting incentives for the development and use of hybrid/electric vehicles is set for plenary debates at the Senate this month, a lawmaker in charge of tax measures said on Monday.
“The bill was already sponsored last October 4, 2011 and will be calendared for the period of interpellations when Congress resumes its sessions next month (May 7),” Senator Ralph G. Recto, who heads the ways and means committee, said at a public hearing, referring to Senate Bill (SB) No. 2856.
This, as the Senate ways and means committee received “transmittal of the House of Representatives version (House Bill No. 5460),” which was approved on third reading last March 21, Mr. Recto said.
The Constitution provides that tax measures originate from the House.
More affordable
Titled “Electric, Hybrid and Other Alternative Fuel Vehicles Incentives Act of 2011,” SB 2856 proposes perks such as exemption from excise and value-added taxes in a bid to bring down showroom prices and make environment-friendly vehicles more affordable.
Specifically, excise taxes paid by manufacturers or assemblers of hybrid/electric vehicles and importers of completely built electric/hybrid cars will be waived for nine years.
Importation and sale of raw materials, spare parts, components and capital equipment for manufacture or assembly of electric/hybrid vehicles will also be exempt from the value-added tax for nine years.
The Senate bill also gave incentives to owners of hybrid/electric vehicles that are not provided under the House version.
“The difference between the Senate and the House version is, basically, the inclusion in the Senate version of incentives which are excluded in the House version,” Mr. Recto said.
Unlike the House version, SB 2856 exempts owners of hybrid/electric cars from paying Motor Vehicle User’s Charge and gives them priority in registration, issuance of plate numbers and franchise application.
Moreover, they are exempted from the number-coding scheme and provided free parking in new business and commercial establishments, the Senate bill said.
No deadline
Without giving a time table for the bill’s approval, Mr. Recto said “these differences will be reconciled in the bicameral conference committee at the appropriate time.”
Sought for comment, Rommel T. Juan, Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturers Association of the Philippines general manager and former president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines, said speedy approval of the proposed measure is expected to “spark the growth of the local electric vehicle industry.”
“This (tax perks on hybrid/electric vehicles) will make locally assembled EVs (electric vehicles) corner a competitive segment of the market,” he said in a text message yesterday.
In the final analysis, he added, the aim is to make such vehicles “attractive to consumers.”
