December 6, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The government has lost P88.2 billion in taxes due to the surge of unscrupulous people using fake disability (PWD) cards to take advantage of the discount and abuse the privilege, a Senate investigation showed.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian presided over yesterday’s Senate ways and means committee that sought to investigate the proliferation of fake PWD cards, which are bought at social media market places for just P500 to P1,500.
Based on the number of PWDs registered with the census and the Department of Health, Gatchalian estimated that there are 1,847,015 “legitimate” Filipino PWDs, who are outnumbered by the estimated 8,535,141 “illegitimate” ones with fraudulently obtained ID cards.
Based on his staff’s calculations, Gatchalian said in 2023, a total of P42.3 billion discounts were legitimately granted to PWDs, while P166.1 billion discounts were given to fake PWDs card holders.
With the VAT exemption and the deductions in the corporate income tax to cover for the PWD discount, Gatchalian said the “tax leakage” or forgone revenue to government due to illegitimate PWDs amounted to P88.2 billion.
“This is not just a fake ID problem, but an economic problem, because we are losing revenue from this. Businesses are being burdened with giving discounts to people who don’t deserve those discounts,” Gatchalian said.
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