THE Department of Finance (DOF) on Thursday said it will ask the help of the Senate to ensure timely passage of its original version of Package 2 Plus B of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), which covers additional excise taxes on alcohol products, heated tobacco and vapor products.
In a press briefing at the House of Representatives, Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua said their version of the bill will generate P32.94 billion in revenues in the first year of implementation of the measure increasing alcohol taxes on alcohol products, heated tobacco and vapor products.
“[In the] last Congress, Senator [Emmanuel] Pacquiao adopted the DOF and DOH [Department of Health]. We will ask the same senator and other senators to possibly adopt and file,” said Chua.
In the same briefing, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the panel chairman, clarified that House Bill 1026 or the Package 2 Plus B will give the government revenues that are P17 billion lower than the DOF-DOH version.
“I have to stand for the House version; if they [DOF] want a higher tax they should come back here and justify it,” Salceda said.
“But if the bicameral comes up with a higher rate, then I have to justify it to the members and leadership of the House…It happens many times that the House approves lower and the Senate approves higher and we end up [with] something in the middle, which is usually higher than the House,” he added.
On Wednesday night, the House approved the inclusion of the excise taxes on heated tobacco and vapor products in the coverage of the House Bill 1026, which originally covers additional taxes on alcohol products.
“I told the DOF If you wanted a higher rate [as provided in the DOF version] then we need go to the entire process again, we will start from the start. Time is more important here. If that happens we will allow the lobby groups again in the committee hearings,” Salceda said.
In approving the bill at the committee level, the ways and means committee invoked House Rule 10, Section 48 or the one-day-hearing-only rule.
While amendments will not be entertained at this level as they resort to the said Section 48, a substitute bill or amendments may be introduced at the plenary level. Before the second-reading approval Wednesday night, the House Committee on Rules introduced the amendments, which include the excise taxes on heated tobacco and vapor products, in the coverage of the House Bill 1026.
Under Section 48 of House Rule 10, “in case of bills or resolutions that are identified as priority measures of the House, which were previously filed in the immediately preceding Congress and have been approved on third reading, the same may be disposed of as matters already reported upon the approval of majority of the Members of the committee present, there being a quorum. The committee secretary shall immediately prepare the necessary committee reports on said measures for inclusion in the Calendar of Business.”