Trabaho bill pro-rich, antipoor–leftist solons

Opposition lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives branded the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill as a “patently pro-rich sequel to the grossly anti-poor and regressive” Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

Representatives Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna, Antonio Tinio and France Castro of ACTTeachers, Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis and Sarah Elago of Kabataan party-list denounced the bill in a statement after the House approved it on second reading on Tuesday.

The bill is the second tranche of the Duterte administration’s tax reform package. It aims to gradually cut the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 20 percent over 10 years and rationalizes fiscal incentives for businesses.

More miserable

The lawmakers said the Trabaho bill could not be “divorced” from TRAIN 1, which they claimed has made the lives of millions of poor families more miserable.

“TRAIN 2 hitches on the back of the notorious first tax reform package, which imposed new and additional excise taxes on oil and other commodities that sent off a tsunami of price hikes,” they said on Wednesday.

“It is detestable that TRAIN 2 proponents are using the Micro, Small and Medium Industries (MSMEs) to justify the argument for a uniform 20-percent tax rate when, in reality, the big industry players will be the big winners,” they added.

The militant lawmakers said the government should instead impose a higher tax rate of at least 35 percent on transnational and big local corporations while lowering the rate for genuine MSMEs, especially in the local agriculture and manufacturing sectors, to 20 percent.