Former Finance chief urges Congress to merge tax bills

After the Senate committee on ways and means filed its version of the comprehensive tax reform program, the next step for both the chambers of Congress is to consolidate their respective versions, a former secretary of Finance said Thursday.

"The Senate version will earn around P130 billion ... but the DOF version will earn above P160 billion," former Finance Secretary Roberto de Ocampo said in a forum in Quezon City.

De Ocampo said he is worried that the net revenues from the Senate bill may result in "lower realistic achievements" as the targeted goals were watered down.

"Then, this has to be discussed by the Senate, House, and the DOF... Therefore, there is a need to examine what the Senate says it will produce. It is already lower than the original version, the original version is designed to fund the infrastructure program," he added.

The original proposal of the Department of Finance targeted P174.2 billion of revenues, while House Bill 5636 — the Tax Reform for Acceleration And Inclusion Act (TRAIN) — penciled in P P133.8 billion.

Senate Bill 1592 — its version of TRAIN — is expected to yield at least P134 billion.

"Maybe the DOF can accept a compromise with that. I'm hoping it will be sorted out at the bicam and end up somewhere between the P130 billion and the DOF's expected net," De Ocampo said.

"But this should not take long. This tax reform should be done before the year ends. The effect of the tax reform is not immediate, so the sooner you get to implement it the better," he added.