By Butch Fernandez & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
The bicameral conference committee tackling the Duterte’s administration proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act is eyeing to approve this week the Senate and House of Representatives joint version of the tax-reform program.
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dakila Karlo E. Cua of Quirino and Deputy Speaker Romero S. Quimbo of Marikina, members of the bicameral committee, said both houses of Congress will continue to thresh out differences between their respective versions of TRAIN this week.
The bicameral committee will meet for the second time on Tuesday.
After consolidating Congress’s two versions of the TRAIN, the lawmakers said the bicameral committee will approve this week the House of Representatives and the Senate joint version of the tax bill.
According to Cua, representatives and senators have already covered 40 pages of the 100-page matrix of the TRAIN. “We discussed for almost eight hours last Friday from 2 p.m. to midnight,” he said. “I am hopeful that we can finish the bicameral [meeting] on the next meeting. Target approval is this week, as well.”
Quimbo said the congressional committee should approve the consolidated version this week to ensure its passage before Congress goes on Christmas break.
“Target [approval] is definitely this week to ensure that it can be ratified by both houses before we go on our break,” Quimbo said.
The bicameral conference committee is composed of members from each House of Congress—both from the majority and minority blocs—to settle, reconcile or thresh out differences or disagreements on any
provision of the bill. The conferees are not limited to reconciling the differences in the bill, and may also introduce new provisions germane to the subject matter or may report out an entirely new bill on the subject.
Once the bicameral committee finalizes its version of the bill, the measure will immediately be transmitted to the both houses for ratification and submitted to the Palace for President Duterte’s signature.
The government is eyeing to implement the TRAIN by January 1, 2018.
Members of the bicameral committee have already agreed to exempt all workers earning less than P250,000 a year from paying personal-income tax.
However, there are several contentious provisions, including excise tax on petroleum, coal, minerals, cosmetic procedures and sugar-sweetened beverages that are pending before bicameral committee consideration.
Other contentious provisions in the Senate and House versions of the TRAIN bill are the imposition of higher tax rates on automobiles and provisions on value-added tax (VAT) zero rating and lifting of VAT exemptions on senior citizens, among others.
Last week Minority Leader Danilo E. Suarez of the Third District of Quezon, also a member of the bicameral committee, reminded their counterparts in the Senate that the 1987 Constitution provides that all tax measures must come from the lower chamber.
Article VI, Section 24 of the Philippine Constitution, which provides “all appropriation, revenue or tariff bills, bills authorizing increase of the public debt, bills of local application and private bills, shall originate exclusively in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments.”
The Senate-approved Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) is targeting to raise P130 billion in revenues to finance the Duterte administration’s ambitious infrastructure program. The Senate passed “a 3,000-
percent increase in coal taxes” to be collected in three tranches until 2020, which means the current P10 excise tax will be raised to P100 in 2018, P200 in 2019 and P300 by 2010.
It also adopted a 10-percent excise tax on cosmetic procedures for aesthetic purposes.
At the same time, senators voted to double excise taxes on minerals and mineral products and quarry resources that proponents said was intended to promote “responsible mining and environmental protection.”
With this, Suarez said he would call for the deferment of the approval of the tax measure should the Senate push the passage of its version of the tax reform program.
“I am hoping that the bicameral conference committee will adopt the House version of the tax package [on the other hand], we will call for the deferment of the [tax reform] if the Senate will insist its version,” Suarez said.
‘No delays’
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto over the weekend voiced confidence the lawmakers can meet the fast-approaching deadline to pass the TRAIN bill and the proposed national budget for 2018 before the December 15 adjournment.
This, as Recto allayed concerns that last-minute hitches could derail timely passage of the P3.7-trillion 2018 budget bill in time for their year-end recess. “I don’t expect a reenacted budget, that’s not good for the country.”
Recto added: “It [operating under the 2017 budget] will be a P300-billion-less budget, so I don’t expect a reenacted budget. I’m sure it will not be difficult to come to terms with the House,” he said, referring to bicameral talks to reconcile the Senate and House versions of the annual money measure.
The senator played down speculations that the Senate-House conference committee tasked to reconcile the two chamber’s version of the budget law could end up in a deadlock as Congress adjourns next week, forcing the Duterte government to operate under last year’s budget until a new one is passed soon as lawmakers reconvene on January 15.
“That [talks of potential deadlock] is only a negotiating posture,” Recto said. “Don’t take too much out of it. I’m confident that there will be an agreement.”