No need to rush Train 2: Solons

MANILA -- Lawmakers say they would rather take their time deliberating over the proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Package 2 (Train 2) while studying how to improve the country’s tax system.

During the Makati Business Club (MBC) Forum Friday, House of Representatives chair for ways and means committee, Dakila Carlo Cua, said the Train 2 “should not be rushed.”

“Package 2 is supposed to lower the corporate income tax and fix the kinks in the incentives regime, so the investors will come in and we can become more attractive as an investment destination in the region. In the middle of it all, should be a tax amnesty package to allow our ‘locked capital’ to be unlocked and to be released to the economy and further fuelling the economic growth,” said Cua, who sponsored a bill on Train in the lower house.

“This is really a big picture that has to go together. We agree that it should not be rushed. There has to be some value in the whole design,” he added.

On the sidelines of the forum, Senate committee on ways and means panel chair Juan Edgardo Angara told reporters that it is difficult to predict the passage of TRAIN 2 in the legislative branch this year.

“With the pronouncement of Senator (Vicente) Sotto (III), Senator (Juan Miguel) Zubiri, I think we need to take time to get a consensus as to this bill,” Angara said.

Unlike in the lower house, Train 2 has yet to find a sponsor in the Senate. However, bills on some portions of the Train 2, particularly on fiscal incentives and lowering of corporate income tax, have already been filed by senators, according to