Salceda proposes tax on motels

From text tax to sex tax.

Now that the proposed tax on text messaging has been indefinitely shelved, the government may soon impose a "sex" tax on motels in an effort to avert the looming fiscal crisis, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said yesterday.

Salceda, a member of President Arroyo’s Economic Managers Group, said the government is contemplating the imposition of presumptive taxation on motels, which have been raking in huge profits without remitting the proper amount of taxes.

"The government is serious about this (tax measure) because it is good policy since it could easily raise P300 million," he said in a telephone interview. "I don’t know what to call it. Another ‘sin tax?’ Tax on sex? If the owners of the motels pass off the tax to the consumers, they can choose to do it at home."

Salceda said the P300 million yearly revenues from taxing motels can pay for the construction of classrooms or fund the government’s health care programs.

Salceda pointed out that motels, unlike hotels, are "unique" since their customers usually do not ask for official receipts. He also said that while hotels report occupancy rates based on daily check-ins, motels virtually have a daily occupancy rate of 150 to 200 percent because of "short-time" and other "less-than-a-day" transactions.

He said without receipts, it will be virtually impossible for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to establish the motels’ true tax base since only gross quarterly receipts are being used.

For Pasay City alone, according to Salceda, there are about 14 motels with a combined capacity of 717 rooms. The city’s BIR office reported that as of 2003, the motels reported a total income of P520 million with P60 million in value-added taxes.

He said the government plans to assume a fixed occupancy rate of 80 percent as a basis for taxation, noting that "generally, the measure would pass the test of fairness and administrative implementation."

On the other hand, Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said members of the "folder brigade," the horde of applicants flocking around Mrs. Arroyo in hopes of being appointed to a government position, must take a "vow of austerity" once they land cushy directorships in government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Andaya, who warned that GOCCs are draining a government that is facing possible bankruptcy, said Palace nominees must forgo excessive perks, bonuses, signing privileges, foreign travel, and car plans involving expensive sport utility vehicles.

"Potential nominees must be made to understand that there is no pot of gold waiting for them in GOCCs," he said. "This must be clear to them from the start, it must be implied in their job description."

In addition to "renouncing outlandish perks," the government nominees must vow to turn around ailing GOCCs and ensure that the government’s dividends are remitted to the national treasury, Andaya said.

He added that he could not understand why Malacañang’s directive to cut the allowances given to "boardroom fat cats" had gone unheeded when these people were hand-picked by the President in the first place and presumed to be loyal to her.

Far from helping improve the government’s finances, the GOCCs have been a drain on the national coffers with 12 of them racking up a combined loss of P169.9 billion from 2001 to 2003.

"Some GOCCs require subsidies estimated at P6 billion a year to keep them afloat and yet some of their directors and top-echelon officials are appropriating money to themselves as if their corporations were as profitable as San Miguel Corp.," Andaya said.

He said optimizing the GOCCs’ gains and minimizing their losses is one way of shoring up the income of the government, whose budget deficit may exceed the P200-billion ceiling for 2004.