The Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Package (CTRP) is facing further delays after the House Committee on Ways and Means—instead of approving the measure—opted on Tuesday to create a technical working group (TWG) to further study the proposal.
The committee approved the motion of Minority Leader and Lakas Rep. Danilo E. Suarez of Quezon, as seconded by Deputy Speaker and Lakas Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to create a TWG to hear more the concerns of stakeholders.
Suarez said a TWG is the best vehicle to approve the tax package. “We approved in principle the package of CTRP, but it won’t mean that all indicators under the CTRP will be approved. Creating a TWG will address several issues [of lawmakers and stakeholders]. The TWG is tasked to adopt a modified version or substitute bill,” he said
Arroyo said the TWG should hear more all the concerns raised by lawmakers and resource
persons during the seven hearings they conducted. “[We] approve[d] in principle the bill as a package, [but a new package] will be formulated by the technical working group with the DOF as a member of the TWG. The TWG would address all issues of cooperatives and other issues by the authors [of bills lowering individual tax],” she said.
45 related bills
Deputy Speaker and Liberal Party Rep. Romero S. Quimbo of Marikina also said the TWG will consolidate the 45 pending bills seeking to lower personal income-tax rates filed at the lower chamber. “There are 45 bills to lower income tax and many of those are opposed to the DOF version. What is clear now is we will consolidate all these bills,” he said. “We’re back to where we really want to start, which is to approve a tax measure that is a package that addresses all the concerns, particularly the progressivity to collect money,” Quimbo said.
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban Rep. Dakila Carlo E. Cua of Quirino said “it is worth noting that the members of his committee have already agreed to pass the CTRP as a whole and not by piecemeal. “After the TWG submits a substitute bill to the mother committee, the mother committee will take action appropriately on the proposed substitute bill.”
Meanwhile, Cua said he will seek the permission of the House leadership to conduct a TWG during congressional break from March 16 to May 2. The DOF-backed tax-reform package seeks to exempt those earning P250,000 and below from personal income tax.
However, the proposal also includes the imposition of excise tax on fuel as compensatory measure for the foregone revenues due to the lowering of income tax. The DOF also proposes a staggered increase of P6 per liter of diesel, kerosene and LPG to be imposed within a three-year period. The current CTRP version also imposes excise tax on vehicles.
The bill also includes the relaxation of the Bank Secrecy Act, taxing Philippine Charity Sweepstakes numbers’ game and lotto winnings.
Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua welcomed the creation of the TWG, as it will further take into account the concerns of the committee, and in the end will help address them through the revised bill. “It is a very good sign; it means that the positions have been heard and then we have to make a decision, so its a good sign,” he said. When asked if it will delay the timeline of the DOF for the implementation of the CTRP, which is in June or July, he pointed out that the department will try its best to have the bill passed. “It is not in our hands, but we will try our best. It’s in Congress’s sole power,” he said.
Antipoor
Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo expressed reservation on the proposed expansion of value-added tax (VAT) and imposition of excise tax on fuel under the CTRP. In a statement, she said that when she and the executive officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development analyzed and scrutinized the proposal, they “put the lens in favor of the poor and the vulnerable”.
Taguiwalo said that, while it is understood that the tax-reform package aims to fund the President’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda and massive infrastructure plan, there are included proposals that are likely to be inimical to the poor’s welfare.
With Rea Cu