{"id":246024,"date":"2020-02-25T00:31:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T05:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246024"},"modified":"2020-02-25T00:31:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T05:31:57","slug":"higher-excise-tax-not-responsible-for-honda-plant-closure-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/25\/higher-excise-tax-not-responsible-for-honda-plant-closure-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher excise tax not responsible for Honda plant closure: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the increase in excise taxes is justified, as taxes are regularly increased anyway. (File photo:<\/a> Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday dismissed claims that higher excise taxes on new vehicles prompted automobile maker Honda Cars Philippines Inc.\u2019s (HCPI) to shut down its manufacturing operations in Laguna.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the increase in excise taxes is justified, as taxes are regularly increased anyway.<\/p>\n

He said the company\u2019s closure could mean that it was losing in terms of quality compared to other automobile makers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng sinasabi nila<\/em>\u00a0centered on cost-competitiveness of local operations.\u00a0Parang natatalo sila sa labanan ng<\/em>\u00a0quality.\u00a0Parang mas mura pa kung nag<\/em>\u00a0import\u00a0sila. \u2018Yan ang pinaka<\/em>\u00a0reason\u00a0nila<\/em>\u00a0(What they are saying is centered on cost-competitiveness of local operators. It\u2019s as if they are losing in terms of quality. It\u2019s as if it would be cheaper if they import. That\u2019s their main reason),\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

As the closure of Honda\u2019s operations is expected to affect 400 employees, Panelo assured that the government\u2019s economic managers are studying the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPinag-aralan na lahat \u2018yan ng<\/em>\u00a0economic managers \u2018yan kung anong magiging<\/em>\u00a0consequences (Our economic managers are studying the consequences of the closure),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, he said Honda personnel who will be left displaced can apply to the government through its infrastructure projects under the \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to look for another job.\u00a0Kaya nga may mga<\/em>\u00a0\u2018Build, Build, Build\u2019 projects,\u00a0para \u2018yung ibang mga nadi-<\/em>displace,\u00a0makakapasok sila ng trabaho<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why we have \u2018Build, Build, Build\u2019 projects, so we can help those displaced workers to find a new job),\u201d he said in an interview over dzIQ on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Duterte administration raised excise taxes on new vehicles and fuel by signing into law the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill or Republic Act No. 10963 in December 2017.<\/p>\n

Honda saw a 26.7 percent drop in volume sales in 2018 to 23,294 units, and then further dropping by nearly 13 percent to 20,338 units in 2019.<\/p>\n

HCPI began the operations of its manufacturing plant in the Philippines in 1992.<\/p>\n

On February 22, the automobile maker announced that it decided to halt operations to optimize efforts in the production operations in Asia and Oceania regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo meet Honda\u2019s customer needs in the Philippines for reasonably priced and good quality products, Honda considered efficient allocation and distribution of resources. As such, after consideration of optimization efforts in the production operations in Asia and Oceania region, Honda decided to close the manufacturing operations of HCPI,” the HCPI said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Despite HCPI\u2019s shut down, the production of Honda motorcycles will not be affected by the closure of the car plant in Laguna.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday dismissed claims that higher excise taxes on new vehicles prompted automobile maker Honda Cars Philippines Inc.\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":222653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246025,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246024\/revisions\/246025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}