Gullas on new taxes: Wishing for the moon

It's like wishing for the moon.

This is how Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas (LAMP, Cebu) described yesterday proposals in the House of Representatives for the imposition of new taxes.

Gullas said it would be better for the administration not to expect the passage of new tax bills and not to include projected revenues from these measures in its revenue target.

"Resistance to new taxes will increase as we inch closer to the May 2001 elections," he said.

The House ways and means committee is considering several bills that would impose taxes on water extraction, use of cellular telephones and stay in motels.

Last week, Rep. Danilo Suarez (LAMP, Quezon), added one more: increasing the levies on cigar and cigarettes, and beer and other alcoholic drinks.

Suarez expects tens of billions of pesos in additional revenues from the proposed new tax measures. From the planned higher taxes on so-called "sin" products alone, he is projecting revenue increase of between P28 billion and P30 billion.

Gullas said if Finance Secretary Jose Pardo would include these revenue projections in his revenue target this year, the administration would end up incurring a bigger budget deficit.

Pardo is expecting only one tax measure from Congress: the road user's charge which would come in the form of increased annual registration fees for the more than three million motor vehicles in the country.

Appearing before the bicameral conference committee on the budget two weeks ago, his first testimony before a congressional panel since his appointment at finance, Pardo included more than P4 billion in road fees in his revenue estimates.

Also included in those estimates were proceeds projected to reach P20 billion from the sale of government assets, including shares in the Manila Electric Co., the Philippine National Bank, Philippine National Construction Corp., and television networks RPN-9 and IBC-13.

Gullas also expressed doubts on whether the administration can sell these assets this year.

He said the government has been trying in vain to sell these properties since the time of former President Corazon Aquino.

Gullas said he hopes that the Estrada administration would succeed this time.

If it fails like its predecessors, the government would be facing a deficit this year that is bigger than the P62.5 billion target, he said.

"That would spell more economic trouble for us," he stressed.