Lower income tax rates gaining wider support

CONGRESS leaders vow to press for the passage of the measure seeking to lower personal and corporate income tax rates in the country.

People’s clamor for lower income tax is growing. The government better listen.

*** Speaker Feliciano Belmonte says that he and Senate President Franklin Drilon will move to prioritize the measure when Congress resumes session on November 3.

Yes to a lighter tax burden. Yes to a pro-people and pro-business Congress.

*** Belmonte adds that he and Drilon will try to see and convince President Aquino III to support the tax reduction proposal.

It’s mainly a pro-workers’ measure that should see the light of day, the Speaker explains.

The House leader points out that Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of Senate Committee on Ways and Means, has also called for the passage of the tax alleviation measure before the 16th Congress ends in June, 2016.

More lawmakers favor tax reduction.

*** House Deputy Speaker Georgidi Aggabao adds that he and his bloc belonging to the United Nationalist Party will support the measure.

Aside from workers’ support, the tax measure is also gaining greater Congress’ support.

*** “So that is something we would like to do when we resume our session,” Speaker Belmonte says, adding they will exert greater efforts to convince President Aquino to support the proposal to lower income tax rates.

“I told Senate President Drilon, let’s take it up again with the Executive,” Belmonte discloses.

*** “The House and Senate versions are almost the same. We have an obligation to try to convince the President,” he says.

And it may also affect the winning chances of the administration’s Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid in the coming polls, with taxation emerging as an election issue.

*** Meanwhile, Malacañang says that it would wait for “specific proposals” for the reduction of the personal and corporate taxes from Congress where tax measures originate.

A sign of softening up?

*** “We recognize the mandate of Congress to initiate the revision of laws invoking revenue generation for the government. We will await specific proposals from Speaker Belmonte and other leaders of Congress,” says Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.

Time for greater MalacañangCongress dialogue and consensus building.

*** Although the President had earlier expressed fears that lower income tax rates might affect the revenue and credit ratings of the country, groups like the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) have agreed to vote in favor of the measure.

“The collective sentiment of the party is to address the issue that matters to the lower and middle income classes,” says Aggabao.

***

Under the proposed income tax reform bill pending in both chambers of Congress, tax-exempt income should be raised from the current 10,000 to 150,000 a year while the 32 percent tax rate on income exceeding 500,000 should be made to apply to 10 million, with corporate income tax lowered from the current 32 percent to 25 percent.

Yes to reasonable adjustments. Yes to lower income tax rates.