President Duterte, acting on the Department of Finance’s (DOF) request, on Monday certified as urgent the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), giving the House of Representatives the mandate to approve the measure by Wednesday.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III made the appeal in a memorandum to the Chief Executive, in the hope that the House could pass the TRAIN before Congress goes on its adjournment sine die on June 2. Its last scheduled session day is on Wednesday.
“We are transmitting this letter of President Duterte certifying to the necessity of the immediate enactment of House Bill [HB] 5636 [the proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act],” Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea said in his letter to Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez dated May 29.
The head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, Adelino B. Sitoy, was also furnished copies of the letter, according to the DOF.
The TRAIN contains the first package of the DOF-proposed comprehensive tax-reform program, which aims to lower personal income-tax rates and implement offsetting measures, like broadening the taxpayer base, limiting value-added tax (VAT) exemptions, and increasing excise taxes on oil and fuel products, among others.
“The benefits to be derived from this tax-reform measure will sustainably finance the government’s envisioned massive investments in infrastructure, thereby encouraging economic activity and job creation; as well as fund the desired increase in the public budget for health, education and social programs to alleviate poverty,” said Duterte in a separate letter to Senate President Aquilino L. Pimentel III.
Both the House and the Senate will reopen for the Second Regular Session of the 17th Congress on July 24, when the President is to deliver his second State of the Nation Address.
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The House can only vote on third and final reading on any bill that it has already passed on second reading after copies of this measure are given to lawmakers at least three days before the date of final voting. This rule can be dispensed with, however, for bills certified as urgent by the President.
“We believe that the President’s certification of the tax-reform bill as an urgent legislative measure that can help ensure timely and full passage of the tax-reform package before the close of the session on June 2, so that the benefits of the reform can be felt sooner,” Dominguez said in his memo to the President.
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and PDP-Laban Rep. Dakila Carlo E. Cua of Quirino said that, with the certification from Malacañang, the lower chamber may approve the bill on second and third readings in a day before Congress goes on adjournment sine die on May 31. “It is possible [to approve the bill before the break on Wednesday due to] the urgent certification from the Palace.”
The DOF submitted CTRP’s first package to Congress last September 26 and was filed as HB 4774 in January 2017 by Cua. He said there were still four remaining interpellators for the tax bill as of 6:20 p.m. on Monday.
The House, Cua added, will also consider the individual amendments submitted by the lawmakers after the period of interpellations. “It’s continuing deliberation and debates. There is also a period of amendments, where all the amendments will be voted upon [by House members].”
The lower chamber, he said, will most likely adopt an amendment that will retain the VAT exemption for cooperatives that where initially lifted in the DOF-backed bill.
TRAIN badly needed
Dominguez stressed in his memo the dire consequences of Congress’s failure to pass the TRAIN bill, given its design to help generate more revenues for the Duterte administration’s public investments over the next half-decade to support its envisioned Golden Age of Infrastructure, among others.
“To achieve these objectives, the administration plans to increase the budget for infrastructure from P795 billion in 2016 to P1.832 billion in 2022 to support the Golden Age of Infrastructure, the budget for education from P551 billion to P1.269 billion, the budget for health from P133 billion to P272 billion, and the budget for social-protection, welfare and employment from P240 billion to P509 billion,” he said. The finance chief added that, for the government to sustainably finance massive investments in infrastructure and in the people, tax-policy reform will be crucial alongside tax administration and budget reforms. Following 13 public hearings in the course of four months, the House Ways and Means Committee approved on May 8 a substitute measure, or HB 5636, that consolidated HB 4774 with 54 other tax-related bills. HB 5636 has moderate changes from the original measure endorsed last year by the DOF to Congress.
Pimentel filed the Senate version of the measure, Senate Bill 1408, in March, and the chamber’s Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Juan Edgardo M. Angara, has thus, far conducted six public hearings on the bill.
Under the 1987 Constitution, all revenue measures must originate from the House, which means that the Senate can start plenary discussions on tax and appropriations or budget bills only after the House has passed its versions of these measures.
Rea Cu, Jovee Marie dela Cruz
1 comment
Rush things w/o thinking of the consequences and effects. That’s the Duterte way.