PWD VAT Exemptions, and Discounts – RR 9-2019

BIR with the issuance of Revenue Regulation 9-2019 (RR 9-2019) amends sections of RR 05-2017 for the implementation of Act. No. 10754, entitled “An Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of Persons with Disability (PWD)”.

RR 9-2019 further clarifies the discounts and exemptions by providing new paragraphs to categorize and list basic necessities and prime commodities. Qualified PWD can avail 5% discount from basic necessities and prime commodities. The same however will no longer be part VAT exempt transactions.

Basic necessities as defined by the regulation are goods vital to the needs of consumers for their sustenance and existence. Basic necessities included in the regulation are as follows:

1. All kinds and variants of rice
2. Corn
3. All kinds of bread (except pastries and cakes)
4. Fresh, dried, and canned fish
5. Fresh pork, beef, and poultry meat
6. All kinds of fresh eggs (except quail eggs)
7. Potable water
8. Fresh and processed milk (except milk labeled as food supplement)
9. Fresh vegetables
10. Fresh fruits
11. Locally-manufactured instant noodles
12. Coffee and coffee creamer
13. All kinds of sugar (except sweetener)
14. All kinds of cooking oil
15. Salt
16. Powdered, liquid, bar laundry and detergent soap
17. Firewood
18. Charcoal
19. All kinds of candles
20. Household LPG
21. Kerosene

Prime commodities are goods not considered as basic necessities but are essential to consumers. RR 9-2019 listed the following under prime commodities:

1. Flour
2. Dried, processed, and canned pork, beef, and poultry meat
3. Dairy products
4. Onions and garlic
5. Vinegar, fish sauce, and soy sauce
6. Toilet bath soap
7. Fertilizer
8. Pesticides
9. Herbicides
10. Poultry feeds, livestock feeds, and fishery feeds
11. Veterinary products
12. Paper, school supplies
13. Nipa shingle
14. Sawali
15. Cement, clinker, GI sheets
16. Hollow blocks
17. Plywood
18. Plyboard
19. Construction nails
20. Batteries (except cellphone and automotive batteries)
21. Steel wires

All other goods and services not expressly stated in the provision (RR 9-2019) will still be qualified for 20% discount for qualifies PWD’s and will be exempt from VAT.

RR 5-2017 Provision states the following as to the availment of PWD discount privileged.

Qualified PWD shall be entitled to claim at least Twenty Percent (20%) discount from the following establishments relative to the sale of goods and services, for their exclusive use and enjoyment or availment of the PWD:

1. Hotels and similar lodging establishments; restaurants and recreation centers;
2. Theaters, cinema houses, concert halls, circuses, carnivals and other similar places of culture, leisure and amusement;
3. All drugstores regarding purchase of generic and branded medicine;
4. Medical and dental services including diagnostic and laboratory fees (e.g., xrays, computerized tomography scans and blood tests) and professional fees of attending doctors in all government facilities or all private hospitals and medical facilities subject to the guidelines to be issued by the DOH, in coordination with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth);
5. Domestic air and sea transportation based on the actual fare. For promotional fares, the PWD can avail the establishment’s offered discount or the 20% discount provided herein, whichever is higher and more favorable;
6. Land transportation privileges based on the actual fare, such as public utility buses or jeepneys (PUBs/PUJs), taxis, Asian Utility Vehicles (AUVs), shuttle services and public railways such as Light Rail Transit (LRT), Metro Rail Transit (MRT), Philippine National Railways (PNR), and such other similar infrastructure that will be constructed, established and operated by public or private entity; and
7. Funeral and burial services for the death of the PWD. Provided, that the beneficiary or any person who shall shoulder the funeral and burial expenses of the deceased PWD shall claim the discount under this rule for the deceased PWD upon presentation of the death certificate and PWD Identification Card (ID) or, in its absence, the original or certified true copy of the proof of registration from the issuing local government unit. Such expenses shall cover the purchase of casket or urn, embalming, hospital morgue, transport of the body to intended burial site in the place of origin, but shall exclude obituary publication and the cost of the memorial lot.

All other goods and services sold by the foregoing establishments not included in the above enumeration expressly provided by law shall not be considered for the 20% discount privilege notwithstanding that the same are for the exclusive use and enjoyment or availment of the PWD.