A lawmaker has expressed optimism that the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) will be filed with the House Committee on Ways and Means within the month.
According to Rep. Dakila Carlo E. Cua of the Lone District of Quirino, he is positive that the proposal submitted by the Department of Finance (DOF) on Package 2 of the CTRP will be filed at the Committee on Ways and Means before the end of February.
“Give me maybe two weeks, before two weeks definitely,” Cua told financial reporters on Monday.
Cua is also the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means at the House of Representatives.
Under Package 2 of the CTRP, the DOF proposes to lower the corporate-income tax to 25 percent, from the current 30 percent, and rationalize the fiscal incentives for businesses to make them performance-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent. The package is touted as revenue neutral.
The DOF submitted Package 2 only last month when legislators resumed regular sessions on January 15.
According to the DOF, the government said the incentives granted to businesses would generate jobs, stimulate the economy in the countryside and promote research and development. It also contains sunset provisions so that tax perks do not last forever and regularly reported so the government can determine the magnitude of their cost and benefits to the economy.
Cua said the committee will tackle both Package 1B and Package 2 simultaneously when the latter is at the committee level.
“We can do simultaneous consideration,” he said.
Republic Act (RA) 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, contains initial gains under the CTRP as Congress passed two-thirds of the potential revenues from the first package. The other third is contained in Package 1B of the TRAIN.
Package 1B has provisions for a estate-tax amnesty, a general tax amnesty, the proposed adjustments to the motor vehicle users charge, as well as amendments to the bank-secrecy law and the automatic exchange of information.
“There’s a large possibility that this package will be more successful than the last,” he said.
About 70 percent of the incremental revenues generated from the TRAIN will help underwrite the buildup of public infrastructures under President Duterte. The remaining 30 percent will be used for social protection programs.
The DOF expects RA 10963 or the TRAIN package to generate estimated revenues totaling P130-billion ion its first year alone.