There are two ways to look at a tax increase. From the government’s side, it is revenue. A product can be taxed, so raise the rate and collect more for healthcare, education, infrastructure, and basic services. From the consumer’s side, however, it is simply another peso added to the bill. So much is the average Filipino’s cost of living these days, that the household budget has become an exercise in subtraction. In June, Philippine inflation stood at 6.4 percent according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA). For households in the bottom 30 percent of the income distribution, it was even worse: […]...

Keep on reading: The highest possible tax is not always the smartest tax