The Department of Finance plans to communicate better with lawmakers in the 18th Congress so that the remaining packages of the Duterte administration’s tax reform program will be passed into law by the end of the year, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
Dominguez in a recent executive committee meeting ordered DoF officials to study ways of actively engaging lawmakers in the incoming Congress to speed up the approval of the rest of the Duterte administration’s tax reform packages.
He also listed the DoF’s priorities when a new set of lawmakers assumes office in the 18th Congress on July 22.
The legislative priorities include increasing tax collections by collecting the right amount of taxes from Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and their foreign employees; ensuring that the Bureau of the Treasury is functioning well; and privatizing idle state assets.
The government is also collecting unpaid obligations due Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. and further increasing the dividend contributions of government-owned and -controlled corporations.
Dominguez instructed DoF officials to accelerate the full implementation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and the fuel marking program, and to assist in the proper implementation of the rice tariffication law.
“We have to improve our engagement with the legislature, and we have to get it more organized. We have to get our tax reform packages passed by the end of this year,” Dominguez said during the meeting.
The rest of the tax reform packages include Package 2, which aims to lower the corporate income tax and modernize the fiscal incentives regime; Package 3, which institutes reforms in the property valuation system; and Package 4, which rationalizes capital income taxation.
Increasing the excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products is among the components of Package 2 Plus, which was approved recently by the outgoing Congress. The other component is the bill that seeks to increase the government’s share from mining operations.