FEARS of a looming debt crisis were promptly allayed last Tuesday by Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara after eliciting firm assurance from Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno the Philippines will not go the way of Asian countries, including Sri Lanka and other downgraded Asian neighbors.
“There have been a lot of speculations regarding our debt, with the cases of Sri Lanka and some of these downgrades,” Sen. Angara had noted but quickly sought firm reassurances “from our finance officials and economic managers that we will not go that way, and that the debt is still at a manageable level?”
The senator raised the issue during the Senate Committee on Ways and Means’ organizational meeting that included a briefing from Finance Department officials led by Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, who assured that the country has “always been careful in its borrowings.”
Diokno also credited the tax reform laws passed by Congress, saying these were “critical in keeping the economy afloat” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I can assure you, your honors, that we will not go the Sri Lanka way,” the Finance chief told the Senate panel.
Tax evaders, smugglers
IN the same hearing, Senator Maria Lourdes “Nancy” S. Binay also sought affirmation whether the government is winning the campaign against tax evaders and smugglers.
Binay said she was curious to know whether the BIR and the BOC have been successful in snaring “big fishes” in their respective campaigns.
“I asked this because there’s this impression that our campaign against tax evaders and smugglers are not deterrent simply because no one knows how many have been convicted for these crimes.”
Binay observed that “it is easy to file a case but the actual conviction of smugglers and tax evaders, I think that’s something lacking in our campaign.” This promptly elicited a response from attending BOC and BIR officials who assured they will “submit a detailed report” on the cases filed by their respective agencies, including the “actual number of cases won” by the two agencies.
At the same time, Senator Pia S. Cayetano pressed for tax-free importation of hospital equipment during the organizational meeting of the Senate Ways and Means Committee also on Tuesday.
Reminding that in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Marcos had stressed the need to establish specialty hospitals in other parts of the country.
“I support that; I have a bill on that,” the senator said. “But the most efficient way to do that is to attach these specialty services to existing regional hospitals instead of building new ones.”
Exemptions considered
ON that note, Cayetano added: “On the tax issue, my question is, would the DOF [Department of Finance] at least be willing to consider for a limited time, a tax-free, duty-free importation of medical equipment?”
In turn, Diokno assured that the DOF “will consider the importation of equipment for specialty hospitals as an exemption to the rule against giving tax exemptions.”
Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, presiding over the organizational meeting of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means Tuesday, also affirmed the panel will perform its mandate as the “taxpayers’ legislative guardian.”
As such, Gatchalian vowed to “balance the interests of government and stakeholders, and to ensure that government revenues” will be effectively allocated for economic and social developments.
“With the passage in the past decades of numerous tax measures that upheld and enhanced the right of the government to demand and collect taxes from the people,” Gatchalian said, “the time has come to legislate and adopt policies that would promote and protect the rights and privileges of those where taxes emanate, and these are no other than our dear taxpayers.”