A Senate ways and means committee investigation into the proliferation of fake disability (PWD) ID cards has determined that the government lost P88.2 billion in taxes from people who use such ID cards to take advantage of the discounts and abuse the privilege reserved for persons with disabilities.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian presided over the investigation into the proliferation of fake PWD cards which can be 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, the committee estimated that there are 1,847,015 legitimate PWDs in the country, who are vastly outnumbered by an estimated 8.5 million illegitimate ones who use the fraudulently obtained PWD ID cards.
Based on the calculations of the senator’s staff for 2023, a total of P42.3 billion discounts were legitimately granted to PWDs, while P166.1 billion in discounts were given to fake PWD card holders. With the value added tax 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,” the senator said.
The PWD discount is a well-meaning but poorly implemented initiative of the government that unsurprisingly ended up being exploited by millions of Filipinos who have no scruples when it comes to obtaining the discounts for themselves, at the expense of the government, and even the business owners who have to process the tax deductions and exemptions or sometimes shoulder the discounts themselves.
The computations may need verification, but it is pretty obvious that fake PWD IDs are a significant problem.
Improving the system, as Bacolod City did when it upgraded the security features of its PWD ID by adding a QR code, as well as implementing and enforcing penalties the users and producers of fake PWD IDs, will be a necessary next step if this well-intentioned initiative is going to remain feasible and beneficial to the country as a whole.*
