Good news for all senior citizens: A bill granting elderly citizens discounts on tollway fees; ride hailing systems and water and power utilities has been approved by a House of Representatives committee.

Now for the bad news: Congress may not have enough time to approve it.

With only 16 session days left for Congress to enact it. the unnumbered substitute bill proposing to grant Filipino senior citizens additional benefits may not be passed before the 19th Congress closes in June.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, announced Tuesday that the unnumbered bill that consolidated 22 bills benefitting senior citizens has been approved by the House panel.

Salceda said that aside from additional discounts on services availed of by senior citizens, the bill provides for the removal of purchase booklets as a requirement for availing of discounts on groceries and other basic commodities.

The consolidated measure also proposes a PHP2,000 tollway discount for senior citizens using expressways in all parts of the country.

“The capped discount ensures that seniors are able to avail of the benefit while protecting it from abuse,” explained Salceda.

“Other benefits include applying the senior discount on TNVs like Grab and Angkas and increasing the water and power utility discount from 5% to 15%, and on those consuming 200kWh rather than just 100kWh,” the senior administration lawmaker said.

Further, the bill also mandates online sales to be subjected to 20 percent discount for elderly Filipinos.

“Businesses will also be able to use the cost of VAT discounts as a deduction from gross income so that the cost of these discounts is shared between consumers and the government, rather than being merely passed on to consumers,” said Salceda.

However, there is little chance the measure will be approved before the remaining 16 session days of the 19th Congress are consumed.

Even if the Lower House is able to approve the measure on third and final reading before the suspension of session on February 8, the bill will have to contend with the Senate process of passing a bill.

Yet, Salceda underscored the importance of enacting the bill.

“As a consensus bill backed by months’ worth of consultations, this should pass Congress even through the lame duck session, if it gets to that,” he said.