THE House minority bloc on Thursday asked Congress leadership to hasten the passage of the proposal lowering the income-tax rates to pressure President Aquino into enacting the measure.
Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III of 1-BAP and Independent Minority Bloc Leader and Lakas Rep. Martin Romualdez of Leyte said the lower chamber’s leadership should fight for the passage of the income tax-reform bill for the benefit of the Filipino workers.
“[Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means] Miro [Quimbo of Marikina] should pass it first at the committee level and the House and Senate leadership [on final reading] and after that let P-Noy [President Aquino] face his bosses,” Bello said.
Romualdez also urged his fellow lawmakers to pass the measure, as this will pressure the Palace to change its position against the proposal to cut income-tax rates.
“We would definitely want this measure to get passed as this stands to benefit millions of Filipino workers,” Romualdez, a lawyer, said.
Malacañang, taking the cue from Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, has repeatedly rejected the passage in Congress of a long-pending bill mandating adjustments in individual and corporate income-tax rates, saying the government “cannot put our fiscal sustainability and credit rating at risk by doing piecemeal revenue-reducing legislation.”
Under the lower chamber’s version of the bill, individuals earning below P180,000 annually will be exempted from paying income tax.
In the current setup, those earning P10,000 or less per month pay 5-percent income tax.
The bill also reduces the income-tax rate of those earning above P180,000 to 5 percent. The highest rate at 30 percent will be paid by those earning P1.1 million annually, he said.
Currently, those with yearly earnings of P500,000 and above pay 32-percent income tax.
Adjustment to inflation
Earlier, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has said the leadership of the 16th Congress will convince President Aquino to at least let Congress adjust the levels of taxable income to inflation after the Palace rejected anew the proposal lowering income-tax rates.
“We [Senate President Franklin Drilon and I] will still convince President Aquino [at least] on the proposal adjusting levels of taxable income to inflation,” he said.
Moreover, according to Quimbo only the proposal adjusting the income-tax bracket is viable, considering the position of the Palace on the proposal cutting the income tax rates and the remaining session days of the 16th Congress.
Quimbo said the P500,000 salary, for instance, which is currently taxable by 32 percent, needs to be adjusted, as this amounts to P1.2 million today.
The Department of Finance has said adjusting the levels of taxable income to inflation may cause the government to lose revenues totaling as much as 1.5 percent of the country’s GDP, or P30 billion.