Don’t shortchange seniors

Egay Uy .

JUST recently, my family and I, on the suggestion of wife Juliet, dined out on separate occasions at a rather famous grill at Divisoria, and later at its Centrio branch. I found out that the food they serve have become more delicious and satisfying than before. The crew was also friendly and accommodating.

What bothered me was the way the senior citizen discount was computed.  The last time we ate at the grill was in Aug. 12.  Juliet ordered tinolang bangus solo and I chose sinigang na bangus solo. These bowls of soup were shared by us with our two sons who were with us.

For my main dish, I ordered lechon kawali meal (still okay at my age, I hope) and Juliet ordered grilled malasugi meal. My lawyer son, OJ ordered chicken barbecue and the youngest son Jose ordered double burger with cheese because he had a treat of pater much earlier.

Juliet and I presented our senior citizen IDs to claim our respective discounts. Without even asking, the cashier of the grill deducted the 20-percent senior discount only from the grilled malasugi and chicken barbecue.  I did not question this anymore.

The official receipt that was issued to me for the orders show that only 20 percent was deducted from the two items. It does not show that the value-added tax was deducted from the selling price.

I have written this before and I hope the authorities will look into this. Some, if not most, senior citizens are not getting the full discounts due them from several establishments. The way the discount was computed by the grill does not appear to conform to the rules issued by the BIR.

Under BIR Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 38-2012, particularly on how to compute the discount if a senior citizen is among a group of diners, the total bill should be divided by the number of persons dining.

Then the 12-percent value-added tax is deducted from the amount pertaining to each senior diner. The remainder is then multiplied by the 20 percent discount. In short, the senior diner will pay only 80 percent of the price net of VAT.

For individualized orders, the discount for seniors must be deducted, net of VAT, from the amount of food ordered for the senior citizen. This was not the case here.

I am not complaining yet but one of these days I will discuss this with my XUHS 1970 classmate, BIR regional director Atty. Hermie Palamine.

I just hope the businesses concerned will compute the senior citizen discounts properly.  Don’t shortchange the seniors, please.