Senate, House to tackle lower income tax bills on November 3

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives and the Senate will tackle the proposal to reduce individual and corporate income tax when they reconvene on Nov. 3.

“We will take it up. We have an obligation to try to. It’s something we would like to do,” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. told reporters yesterday.

He said he and Senate President Franklin Drilon would meet with President Aquino before the resumption of session to discuss the reduced income tax proposal.

He said Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, who is ways and means committee chairman, and his Senate counterpart Juan Edgardo Angara are ready with their versions of the proposed lower income tax bill.

He said the fact that such versions “are basically the same” should expedite consideration of the measure.

Belmonte pointed out that bills seeking lower income tax have been pending in previous Congresses for about two decades.

He added that every time a legislative proposal is re-filed, it gets easier to have it tackled and approved “even if we have to fight the battle two times, three times, four times, five times.”

“Who would have thought that we could pass the sin tax reform bill and the Reproductive Health bill, which are now laws?” he asked.

He said these measures languished in previous Congresses for 15-16 years.

Aquino had initially opposed the lower income tax proposal, but when Quimbo and Angara explained it and its implications, he ordered the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to restudy it.

The President said Congress could not just cut income tax without approving measures that would allow the government to recoup revenue losses.

He said it is the economy and ultimately the people who would be hurt if there were no compensatory measures.

Quimbo, spokesman for the ruling Liberal Party’s 2016 ticket, lamented that opposition presidential and vice presidential candidates are now making a political issue out of the lower income tax proposal.

“They are making it appear that we are against it when in fact we are the proponents. It’s easy to criticize, but what have they done? Have they made or filed a similar proposal in Congress?” he asked.      

The DOF and the BIR have floated the idea of increasing the value added tax (VAT) from 12 percent to 14 percent in exchange for lower income tax.  – With Rhodina Villanueva