ONE of the authors of House Bill (HB) 9277 cited the windfall for the medical assistance provided by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) if the proposed Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act (Cmepa) is enacted.
According to AnaKalusugan Party-list Rep. Ray T. Reyes, halving the documentary stamp tax (DST) on lottery tickets and horse-racing bets to 10 percent would substantially increase the charity fund allocated to the PCSO’s Medical Access Program (MAP).
Reyes, a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said through a statement issued last Monday that a reduction in the DST would contribute an additional P4 billion to their charity fund for medical assistance. The lawmaker cited PCSO’s data as basis.
Reyes further noted that while PCSO’s charity fund reached P18.3 billion last year, 67 percent, or P12.2 billion, went to DST.
“In our congressional hearings, we discovered that a considerable portion of PCSO’s charity fund is consumed by DST,” he remarked. “As a result, only an estimated 11 percent, or P2 billion, was allocated to the medical access program last year.”
The lawmaker said that for 2024, the PCSO is estimating that P14 billion will be spent on DST and only P1.68 billion will be used for beneficiaries of the MAP.
“This is why we are proposing a tax reduction. Once approved, we expect an additional P3 billion will be added to the program, giving it a total of P4.9 billion,” Reyes added.
The lawmaker issued a statement after the bill was recently approved on third reading in Congress with 270 affirmative votes, three negative votes and one abstention.
Aside from cutting the 20-percent DST on PCSO lottery tickets and horse-racing bets, HB 9277 seeks to amend the Tax Code by reducing taxes on stock transactions from 0.6 percent to just 0.1 percent of stock value.
HB 9277 aims to enhance capital markets and the investment competitiveness of the country and create parity in the tax treatment of debt and stock securities. It shall do so through the following: reduction of the stock transaction tax; imposition of the debt transaction tax, except for government securities; and, reduction of the dividends tax to non-resident aliens from 25 percent to 10 percent to harmonize the cash and property dividend rates.
Once enacted into law, HB 9277 will amend Sections 22, 24, 25, 121, 127 and 190 of Republic Act 8424, or the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended.