Mar pushing income tax cut – lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines - Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II is helping congressional leaders push for lower income tax, Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo, who chairs the House of Representatives committee on ways and means, said yesterday.

“Mar is an advocate of income tax cut. He is helping us convince the President to support the proposal in the House and the Senate to adjust income tax rates for inflation,” he said.

He said Roxas had filed bills to reduce income tax when he was a senator and a congressman.

Roxas himself, however, has expressed support for the Aquino administration’s stand against an income tax cut unless the revenue loss can be recovered in other ways such as a higher value-added tax.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. met with President Aquino last Monday to convince him to support income tax reduction proposal. The President said he would study it.

Quimbo said there is still enough time for the House and the Senate to pass the measure.

“We continue to hope that our proposal will become law before the President steps down on June 30, 2016. We are hoping we could eventually convince him to support it. The President is a deliberate decision maker. He takes time to decide on an important and complex issue like tax reform. But when he makes a decision, it is always for the greater good,” he said.

He said he is sure that Aquino would not leave the lower income tax issue to the next administration to resolve.

While they are hoping to convince the President, they are giving up on Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima.

“He does not see the bigger picture. Governance is not always about credit ratings. There is a higher objective here than good credit ratings numbers,” Quimbo said.

Quimbo said their proposal calls for adjusting tax rates only for inflation.

“The rates have not been adjusted since 1997. It is sound policy to tweak them for inflation, like what we did with the excise tax rates on the so-called sin products (tobacco and alcohol),” he said.

He said bills on sin taxes and reproductive health had languished in Congress for 15-16 years.

“It was the President who pushed for their enactment and with the support of his allies in Congress, these are now laws. I am confident that the lower income tax bill will see the light of day,” he added.

Rep. Terry Ridon of Kabataan party-list group said the approval of a bill granting government officials and employees a new round of salary adjustment increases the pressure for the President and Congress to agree on reduced income tax.

“With the pay hike, state personnel would be pushed to the higher tax brackets. In effect, their salary increase will be eaten up by taxes if the proposal to cut tax rates is not enacted,” he said.

Lower income tax will complement the impending salary increase in the bureaucracy, he said.