By Kap Maceda Aguila
THE uncertainty is gone — even if not completely. Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) and Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) recently released prices of their new vehicles to reflect changes brought about by the country’s new taxation scheme, also known as the TRAIN, for Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion, which took effect at the onset of 2018. Supplanting the country’s 20-year-old tax system, TRAIN is envisioned to provide tax relief for lower-income workers and shift the burden onto more affluent taxpayers. The taxation scheme is expected to bankroll the government’s infrastructure push embodied in its “Build, Build, Build” mantra.
Alternative-fuel powered vehicles are provided a measure of relief: Electric vehicles will be exempt from taxation, while hybrid cars are to be taxed at half the indicated rates. Pickup trucks are also excluded from tax, as they are frequently conscripted for commercial and agricultural duty by businessmen and entrepreneurs.
Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation has yet to release its own TRAIN-era pricing, pending “approval by management,” revealed a company source to BusinessWorld. He assured that the new prices will be “released soon.”
As seen in the new Honda stickers, TRAIN-era pricing seems to defy the common expectation that lower-priced vehicles will get commensurately small increases compared to their more expensive siblings. Honda’s most affordable vehicle, the Brio 1.3 M/T, used to cost P619,000. That figure now stands at P631,000 — an increase of P12,000. Compare this to the most expensive offering of HCPI here, the Odyssey EX-V NAVI CVT, which used to cost P2.449 million. It now costs P16,000 less. Meanwhile, the cheapest Civic variant, the 1.8E CVT, is now priced at P1.138 million — up by P23,000.
Like HCPI, TMP’s new pricing is already reflected on the company Web site. Its most inexpensive offering, the Wigo 1.0G A/T, now costs P611,000 — P12,000 higher than its pre-TRAIN sticker price. By contrast, the Land Cruiser 200 4.5 Premium is now priced at P4.650 million — with a huge P350,000 lopped off its old pricing. The Vios, the undisputed sales leader in the Philippines, receives a range-wide increase. The base model is slapped on with a P12,000 hike, while the top 1.5G A/T variant ups its sticker price to P953,000 (plus P28,000).
