Solon wants to tax drinking water???

What's next? Tax the air we breath?

From Neal Cruz:

As if the expanded value-added tax is not enough to squeeze the life out of the people, a congressman has filed a bill to tax-would you believe-drinking water. Yes, House Bill 2899 of Samar Rep. Catalino Figueroa (Lakas-NP) proposes to impose a 10-percent excise tax on bottled water. The excise tax would be in addition to the EVAT. And the House ways and means committee, instead of throwing the stupid bill into the waste basket, has actually started hearings on it last Aug. 16.

Drinking water is a basic necessity. Nobody can continue to live without safe drinking water. In a country where more than one-third of the population has no access to safe drinking water, it is criminal to tax it. Entire communities have fallen ill from drinking contaminated tap water. By his own admission, Figueroa said that bottled water has become a necessity, that it is essential to life. Yet, he wants to put it beyond the reach of the people by imposing an additional tax on it. All for what? So the government will have more money that government officials can steal and use to bribe witnesses and legislators. Perhaps, Figueroa was thinking of the pork barrel of congressmen when he filed the bill.

An excise tax is imposed to curb the consumption of products harmful to health, such as alcohol and tobacco. By slapping such tax on drinking water, is Figueroa saying that people should be taxed for wanting to survive? A tax on drinking water, bottled or not, is a tax on a person's right to life.