Tax reform plan under review

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Finance is studying possible revisions in the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) to help sectors severely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 outbreak, according to DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

Dominguez said this in response to acting Socioeconomic Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua’s statement that the CTRP may need some tweaking to provide relief to those affected by the pandemic.

“This is still under study,” Dominguez said in a text message to reporters.

During yesterday’s Laging Handa press briefing, Chua said the Duterte administration’s CTRP still needs to be pushed in Congress. However, he said the packages may need “some addition or changes to help those affected by COVID-19.”

According to the finance chief, one of the changes being considered by the DOF involves the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA)’s provision on the powers of the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

“One idea worth exploring is the possibility of granting the FIRB the flexibility of tailoring programs to the needs of individual companies,” he said.

The FIRB is an existing interagency committee, chaired by the DOF, which grants tax subsidies to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Under the CITIRA bill, the FIRB’s coverage would be expanded to include approval of tax incentives to private businesses.

FIRB will also serve as the oversight body for the country’s 13 investment promotion agencies (IPAs), which are currently autonomous, with their own respective menu of tax incentives.

Earlier, the DOF said changing the mandate of the FIRB would harmonize the provision of fiscal incentives, ensure that the grant of incentives would lead to job creation, and provide more opportunities to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to avail of tax perks.

Aside from empowering the FIRB, the CITIRA bill also seeks to reduce the corporate income tax rate in the Philippines, while rationalizing the tax incentive system.

The bill is still pending in the Senate, having been sponsored by Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Pia Cayetano in the plenary last February.

Meanwhile, the DOF is also pushing for the passage of two other tax reform measures under the CTRP.

These are Package 3, which seeks to overhaul the land valuation system, and Package 4, which aims to rationalize taxes in the financial sector. Both these packages are currently pending in the Senate.