The back-to-back devastations of Pedring and Quiel inundated a vast swath of Luzon,  trapping people, isolating communities, and choking food supply lines to urban centers.

Major natural calamities such as the twin typhoons have automatic impact on prices of foodstuffs and other basic commodities.

When rice lands, vegetable patches and fruit orchards, fish ponds, poultry and livestock farms are flooded, the food supply chain is disrupted        

The distributors of these vital supplies use toll ways to have their perishable goods delivered to markets in Metro Manila as soon as possible.

Considering the grave national emergency in the wake of the onslaught of Pedring and Quiel, efforts must be exerted to lighten the burden of truckers and haulers which now have to contend with fewer stocks of  cereals, vegetables. meat, fish, and fruits.

But these food carriers must not only cough up cash the regular  toll for the use of vital highways; they  must now pay a higher rate as the new fare matrix went into effect.

The heartless toll-way operators couldn’t have picked a finer time for hoisting their toll rates as the value-added tax on toll went into effect . 

This is a sure-fire formula for a steep spike in the prices of food and basic commodities.        

Since they could not be denied their fare adjustments on account of the toll VAT, one lawmaker is making an urgent appeal that they at least offer temporary discounts to key toll users.

Cagayan Rep. Juan Enrile has urged toll-way operators to implement a discount program to  benefit commuters and businesses that regularly pass through expressways to cushion the impact of the imposition of the value-added tax on toll.

“While we understand the need for businesses to stay viable and for government to collect taxes to back its spending, we also need to balance these needs with the interest of the consuming public which will be adversely affected by the hike in toll because of VAT,” Enrile was quoted by major broadsheet as saying. .

To address the concerns of commuters and businesses on higher toll, the lawmaker said toll-way operators can come up with a program that gives regular users discounted rates.

For example, they can offer pre-paid toll cards that can be used for one year and comes at a 10-percent discount and prepaid cards that can be used for six months carrying a lower five percent discount. On-site payments, meanwhile, will be charged the full amount.

“By re-engineering toll-way payments and allowing long-term toll payments, we will not only make it more convenient for regular users of the expressways to pay toll, it can also be used to roll out a selective cumulative quantity-discount program for users in this category,” the lawmaker said.

Through this, he said regular users get some reprieve from the price hike and toll-way operators are able to collect the money in advance which can then be invested to recover the discounts it gave, and the government will still be able to collect its VAT payments.

The Cagayan solon also said tollway operators can first use input tax credits that they have accumulated to reduce the amount of VAT that they must pay the government to minimize the consumer impact of the collection of 12 percent VAT on toll.

A Supreme Court ruling promulgated on July 19 denied a petition questioning the imposition of VAT on toll-way operations and lifted a temporary restraining order issued on Aug. 13, 2010 which earlier halted the collection of VAT on toll.