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DESPITE
its declared intent to spare the public from new taxes
as they bear the impact of the expanded value-added tax,
the government may be forced to impose new taxes sooner
than planned—in the next two years or even next year—to
cover for the P13 billion to P16 billion in revenue
losses from corporate income taxes.
Finance
Secretary Margarito Teves indicated as much at Tuesday’s
hearing on the proposed 2008 national budget by the
House Committee on Appropriations.
Teves
said there is a need to reassess the government’s tax
collections. “The corporate income tax will go down from
[the current] 35 percent to 30 percent, [and] based on
preliminary estimate, the revenue foregone there would
be anywhere between P13 billion and P16 billion, so we
have to find ways and means [to recover] that amount,”
said Teves.
Because
of this, Teves hinted that the government might be left
with no other option but to implement new taxes to
recover the projected losses.
Apparently realizing, however, that Mrs. Arroyo made an
earlier pronouncement that there will be no new taxes,
Teves quickly said the government would remain true to
its commitment not to impose new taxes this year.
“This
year, there will be no new taxes. In 2008, we don’t know
yet. We’ll look into that,” he said, stressing that
“we’re not making any commitment from 2008 onwards.”
Also at
the hearing, the budget secretary reiterated that both
“the ZTE [national broadband network] or cyber education
[project],” which together would saddle taxpayers with
at least $829 million in loans, “were not considered in
coming up with the program of expenditures,” meaning, no
outlays for counterpart funding or any preliminary
groundwork for the controversial projects, both funded
by Chinese government loans, has been included in the
2008 budget—at least for now.
Members
of the committee squeezed Budget Secretary Rolando
Andaya Jr. on the $1.8-billion borrowings by the
government, which Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora earlier
said was meant for “unspecified projects.”
“Mr.
Chairman, first of all let me state that before we even
get to discussing how we [will] pay for this supposedly
China loan which we haven’t had official receipt of… in
that kind of a loan, the first question is papano
gagamitin? Wala pa ho tayong babayaran, wala pa ho
tayong natatanggap na loan [how will it be used?
There is as yet nothing for us to pay for, we haven’t
received any loan]. So there is no payment to talk
about, Mr. Chairman, and secondly, the process of paying
for these debts—be it for principal [or]
interest—requires authority from Congress, said Andaya
“It is not a unilateral act on the part of, or
discretion on the part of the Executive. It must have
[gotten prior] approval and authority from Congress…
through various laws. It is something we are empowered
to do because Congress authorized us to do it,” said
Andaya to the query of Lakas Rep. Thelma Almario of
Davao Oriental.
Andaya
also informed the chamber that the cyber education
project opposed by several congressmen was not included
in the 2008 budget.
“None
now whatsoever, Mr. Chairman. We can’t have a
Government of the Philippines counterpart when there is
no foreign counterpart. For all intents and purposes of
the 2008 budget, the ZTE [national broadband network] or
cyber education were not considered in coming up with
the program of expenditures Mr. Chairman,” Andaya said.
Satisfied, Almario replied: “I will stand up on the
floor to defend the education budget. I will say that I
got it from the horse’s mouth that there’s really
nothing in the 2008 budget which is for cyber education
tech project.”
This
developed as Andaya said the government is allocating a
total of P2.69 billion for the production of 3.7 million
pieces of machine-readable Philippine passports.
The
amount, which is tucked into the proposed P10.05-billion
2008 budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs, “is
fully recoverable as applicants will pay for passport
production and processing,” said Andaya.
Also
included in DFA’s 2008 appropriations is P90 million for
the purchase of “data-capturing equipment,” a requisite
for the printing of 3,714, 286 passport booklets.
Andaya
said next year’s DFA budget is P2.5 billion bigger than
this year’s allocation, mainly due to the rollout of new
passports and the setting up of new diplomatic stations
abroad.
He added
that allowances of foreign-service personnel have been
adjusted to reflect current peso-dollar exchange rates
and “the need to attend to the multifarious concerns of
Philippine nationals and interests overseas.”
A budget
briefer sent by the DFA to the DBM explains that the
“new passport regime will greatly minimize passport
irregularities, improve passport record storage and
retrieval, and result in faster production and
processing time.”
One-fifth of passport booklets printed will be sent to
the country’s 92 embassies and consulates, for easier
access by Filipinos overseas.
In
Monday’s first deliberations, Andaya also disclosed that
the budget for the automated elections has already been
set aside, to the delight of the congressmen. |
