Legarda backs Malampaya-backed bond sale

Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda has endorsed government’s plan to cash in on the royalties that it stands to earn from the Malampaya natural gas project.

"We stand squarely behind the plan to sell bonds backed by future government revenues from the project," Legarda said.

"The plan is viable because Malampaya is about to start commercial production and the field‘s gas reserves have been proven," Legarda pointed out.

"If we can tap future revenues now to help fund the projected P145-billion budget deficit this year, then that would be most welcome," Legarda said.

"The only problem with the plan is that this is not a good time to float bonds overseas," she added.

The National Power Corp. and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. earlier deferred plans to float $400 million and $300 million worth of bonds, respectively, after foreign investors were shaken by the terrorist attacks in the United States.

Government plans to sell $200 million (P10.2 billion) worth of bonds secured by the estimated $10 billion (P510 billion) income it expects to earn from the Malampaya natural gas project over the next 20 years.

The government earnings represent 30 percent of the revenues that would be generated after the consortium behind the project shall have recovered costs incurred to fully develop the gas field.

The deep-water gas field will start next month. It is expected to displace about $670 million P34.2 billion) worth of oil imports each year and cover 16 percent of the country’s electric power needs.

In the first six years of production, government is expected to earn $125 million (P6.4 billion) in annual royalties. Government also expects to reap an indirect windfall from state-owned Philippine National Oil Co.’s 10 percent interest in the project.

Shell Phils. Exploration B.V. and Texaco Inc. control 90 percent of the project.

Higher taxes on cellphone calls, operators rejected

Meanwhile, Legarda cautioned her colleagues in Congress against passing two bills that seek to increase government taxes on cellular telephone calls and operators.

Legarda warned that the country’s estimated eight million cellular telephone users would end up paying for the additional taxes, not the operators.

"Operators will surely find a way to pass the new taxes on to subscribers in the form of higher call charges. In the end, users would bear the heavier tax burden," Legarda pointed out.

Legarda was referring to the bill seeking to impose a 50-centavo tax on every call from a cellular telephone. Another bill seeks to impose a 10 percent tax, over and above the existing 10 percent value added tax, collected from cellular calls.

Both bills provide that the new tax revenue to be generated shall accrue to a special fund meant to finance the computer education in public schools.

"The intention (of he two bills) to raise funds for school computerization is indeed praiseworthy. However, we do to have to impose new taxes to finance computerization," Legarda stressed.

"If it wills to, congress can simply appropriate fund f or school computerization out of the General Fund while we are deliberating on the proposed 2002 national budget," Legarda added.

Earlier, consumer groups claimed that the proposal to tap revenues from the proposed new taxes for consumer education was merely being used by advocates to "sweeten" an "unsavory" user levy.

Legarda for her part, questioned the prudence of dedicating to a specific fund the revenues to be raised from the proposed new taxes.

"This approach is totally incompatible with the one-fund principle being championed by the Department of Finance," she explained.

Under the one-fund rule, all government income should accrue to the General Fund of the National Treasury to ensure more efficient revenue mobilization and allocation.