|
AS
almost everyone is saying, central to all government
effort is efficient tax collection, and National
Statistical Coordination Board Secretary-General Romulo
Virola added his voice on Tuesday by asserting that if
the government is to help cushion the adverse impact of
rising food and fuel costs on poor Filipinos, improving
tax collection is top priority.
He cited
data to indicate that many Filipinos do not pay their
tax correctly. “Overall, the
Philippines
had a tax-income ratio of only 1.8 percent in 2003,
which seems very small, an indication that we as a
people possibly do not pay enough taxes.”
At
present, said Virola in his latest online column
“Statistically Speaking,” the “rice-price crisis and the
unrelenting surge in oil prices pose big threats to the
sustainability of past gains. What does the future hold
for us? The efficiency and effectiveness of tax
collection, the honesty and sense of responsibility of
the taxpayers, and the social conscience of tax evaders
will surely all be a factor.”
Virola
said the lowest tax-income ratio in 2003 came from the
regions of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,
Davao
and Soccsksargen. The five provinces with the lowest
tax-income ratio are Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Sarangani,
Davao Oriental and Sulu.
He also
said that based on the 2003 Family Income and
Expenditure Survey (FIES), no group of workers paid more
than 5 percent of their income in taxes, with the
tax-income ratio ranging from 0.7 percent among farmers,
forestry workers and fishermen to 4.3 percent among
professionals. “Officials of government and
special-interest organizations, corporate executives,
etc., pay taxes equivalent to 2.5 percent of their total
income. But isn’t the 4.3-percent tax paid by
professionals too low? In fact, in Region XII [Soccsksargen],
the professionals paid only 1.8-percent tax, even lower
than the rate paid by clerks, technicians and associate
professionals and the group of service workers, shop and
market sales workers,” said Virola. |
