Congress urged to pass tax reform bill as one package

SHARING her “sad experience with tax reform,” former president and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has cautioned Congress against passing the Duterte administration’s CTRP (Comprehensive Tax Reform Program) provisions separately instead of as a package.

When she asked lawmakers in 2008 to pass a revenue measure to fund her request for a supplemental budget, she said they did so but only tax-eroding provisions in 2009 and did away with the portion that would have offset the revenue loss.

As a result, the government lost P14 billion in revenues, Arroyo recently told members of the House ways and means committee headed by Rep. Dakila Carlo Cua during a hearing on the proposed CTRP.

Under the Constitution, a supplemental appropriations bill should be supported by funds available in the National Treasury or by funds to be raised through a corresponding revenue proposal.

- proved last March 14 aims to lower personal income tax (PIT) rates, while at the same time, providing for a corresponding set of revenue-enhancing measures, among them the adjustments in the excise taxes on fuel and automobiles and the expansion of the VAT base but keeping ex- emptions for seniors and persons with disability.

Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd of the Department of Finance said the decision of the committee to pass tax reforms as a package is a step closer for Congress to help the Duterte administration fund its ambitious agenda to sustain the high-growth momentum, dramatically cut poverty and transform the country into a high middleincome economy by 2022.