THE PEN SPEAKS
Danny O. Sagun

DESPITE low popularity ratings, this administration has opted to implement the 12 percent VAT starting this month, which shows that the Malacañang lady occupant has the guts and the balls (how about that, since she’s a SHE?) to face the consequence of a hard decision. Her resiliency to stand up to crisis has been widely noted since the start of campaign to oust her. Why, she’s still there until now seemingly unperturbed!

On that point alone, she has outclassed the wily Marcos and the dapper Erap, who both fled at the start of hostilities.

She’s too big really for her size, perhaps even for Mike.

*****

Cellular operator Smart did not waste time passing to its customers the 12 percent VAT. We don’t know if the telecom industry is bound to be affected by the reformed VAT.

At midnight of January 31, we were awakened by a message from Smart. As load retailer ourself, Smart advised us that starting February 1, there will be adjustments in the pricing of load. From P26 for the P30-load, the price for us retailers will be P26.50, or a 50-centavo-decrease in our profit. For the P60-load, the new price ceiling is P53 from the old P52, or one peso less in our profit. P2 was also taken from the P115-load. We retailers could not just pass the new pricing to our customers, say P30.50 for the 30-load, or P61 for the 60-load, and P117 for the 115-load.

The company also increased its wholesale price for the cell cards of P300 and P500. We were advised by a dealer to sell the P300 card at its face value – no more discounts as had been used to by our customers.

Globe, on the other hand, has yet to issue an advisory to us although we were informed that very soon it will follow its competitor. Again we ask. Is the telecommunications industry one of those affected by reformed VAT?

We customers of the cellular providers have been suffering from the firms’ so-called technical glitches (read: inefficient service). Globe for instance cannot accommodate reloading requests in our area on early evenings. Its Touchmobile brand particularly cannot make any reloading starting around 6 p.m. up to around 10 p.m. — and that’s every day. Touchmobile customers can only scratch their head as we spurn their requests for load at our little store.

The cell companies are set to launch their hi-tech 3G services. Yet they appear to be deficient in the delivery of their present services. How can they move to a higher level when they still have to perfect their present services? (If this is not greed, we don’t know what is — Ed)