The Department of Finance (DOF) has prioritized a number of bills for which it has full support in 2018, including the review of the “sin” tax law, the tarrification of rice, the creation of a national identification system, and the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).
“We told them [the legislature] we will be focusing on Package Two, which is lowering corporate-income tax together and reviewing the fiscal incentives. We would also support [the] review of the sin tax law for both alcohol and tobacco and the tariffication of rice. Those would be our areas of focus,” Dominguez told financial reporters.
The bill on rice tarrification would liberalize rice trade in the country. It was certified urgent by the executive committee of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac-ExCom) in July, according to the National Economic and Development Authority.
The Unified National Identification System Act was also certified as urgent earlier in the year by the Ledac. The bill seeks to establish a national identification database system that will register personal information of Filipinos in one single database.
In September the House of Representatives approved House Bill (HB) 6221 or the Filipino Identification System, which passed on third and final reading.
The sin tax reform law, or Republic Act 10351, aims to simplify the current excise-tax system on alcohol and tobacco products and addresses public health issues relating to alcohol and tobacco consumption.
Package Two under the CTRP aims to lower the corporate income-tax rate to 25 percent, from the current 30 percent, while rationalizing the fiscal incentives. The CTRP proposes a total of five packages, with the first package on lowering personal income-tax rates already being deliberated on by the bicameral conference committee.
“We understand that there may be other distractions that will come up, that’s why we want to push this legislation onward. I don’t have a schedule for the Ledac yet. I am just talking about the DOF. The other one that we want to push also is the National ID that is very key to the whole mobilization of the Philippine society,” Dominguez added.
The Senate committee on ways and means approved Senate Bill 1592 or its version of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN) on November 28. HB 5636, which is its counterpart in the House of Representatives, was approved on May 31.
The bicameral conference committee tasked to reconcile the conflicting versions of the House and Senate versions of the TRAIN began its meeting on December 1. It is expects to wrap and come up with a harmonized version within the month.
Dominguez expressed the hope that the bicameral conference committee submits the final reconciled version of the TRAIN to Malacañang by the second week of December so that President Duterte could sign it into law before the Christmas holidays and in time for publication before the end of the year. It was also hoped the measure becomes effective by January 1, 2018.