Government. inaction on tax exemption for minimum wage earners hit

Workers lashed at government for allegedly not making a concrete decision on tax exemption for minimum wage earners.

Kilusang Mayo Uno said that the government is only trying to pacify the workers by giving them false promises for them not to join the protests calling for the resignation of President Arroyo.

Alyansa sa mga Mamumuo sa Sugbo-KMU spokesperson Nicasio Igot said that the refusal of the finance department to heed the proposal of the House committee on ways and means to exempt workers from income taxes is proof that the government is not serious in carrying out what it earlier said.

Recently, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves declared that the Department of Finance cannot recommend to make the bill on the proposed tax exemption for minimum wage earners as urgent bill because it could result to billions of losses on the part of the government.

Teves said that they could not recommend to President Arroyo the certification of House Bill 5296 as an urgent measure because it would result in a net revenue loss of P4.02 billion.

Under the proposed measure, those with annual taxable incomes of P55,000 and below are exempted from paying income taxes.

But Igot said that the bill does not really mean tax exemption because they may not be required to pay withholding taxes monthly but workers would still have to pay these by the end of the year.

"Paglipat-lipat ra na sa mga mamumuo. Klaro kaayo nga kadtong giingon ni Arroyo nga tax exemption pa-pogi ra to aron ang mga mamumuo di moapil sa mga kalihukan nga nanawagan sa pagpalagpot niya," Igot added. - Wenna A. Berondo