JG Summit Holdings Inc. president Lance Gokongwei expressed his support for the Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, saying it is more equitable and simpler.
Gokongwei said he recognized the critical role that large taxpayers would play in the success of President Duterte’s reform agenda and tax reform program of the Finance Department.
“When it comes to tax policy and administration, our desire is but simple: first, a streamlined, not-too-burdensome set of procedures and processes that will make tax compliance straightforward and easy,” Gokongwei said at the kick-off ceremony of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s 2017 tax collection drive.
“And second, a tax reform that will be equitable to our wage earners, allow the government to fund vital infrastructure and social services while enabling corporate partners to remain competitive in this global trading order,” he said.
Gokongwei said large taxpayers carried a disproportionate influence of setting the right tone of compliance with tax laws, serving as “barometers of the overall environment of integrity”•or lack thereof”•in our country.”
Gokongwei said that in pursuing tax reform, “temporary inconveniences, hiccups and growth pains” were to be expected, but such concerns would not deter him and his fellow large taxpayers in helping ensure the success of the reforms being put in place by the DOF both in tax policy and administration.
“To be considered as partners for change rather than to be treated with suspicion, to be consulted rather than to be threatened, to be given a seat at this table in seeking a just resolution of differences rather than being shut out, this humbles and inspires us no end,” he said.
The first package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program being pushed by the DOF calls for the lowering of personal and corporate income taxes, with the goal of shifting the tax burden to the rich and large taxpayers. It also includes several revenue-generating measures to offset the losses from the income tax reductions and to raise enough revenues for the government’s unprecedented public investments program.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said expanding the scope of the BIR’s Large Taxpayers Service was a key component of the tax administration reforms under the Duterte presidency to complement the proposed overhaul of outdated tax policies to make the system simpler, fairer and more efficient, especially for the poor, low- and middle-income taxpayers.
Dominguez said his marching orders to the BIR to accomplish this goal was to “go out and find” the other large taxpayers that managed to avoid the B=bureau’s registry so that it could significantly increase its tax effort, which, for the first nine months of 2016 alone reached P891 billion for the LTS, representing a 9.41 percent improvement over the same period in 2015.
The LTS set a collection goal of P1.152 trillion this year, equivalent to 63 percent of the total BIR target of P1.829 trillion.
Dominguez said the Duterte administration was pursuing reforms both in tax policy and administration to raise additional revenues for the government’s unprecedented public investment program focusing on infrastructure, human capital and social protection for the poorest of the poor.
Besides Gokongwei and other large taxpayers in the country, 15 foreign and local business organizations belonging to the Philippine Business Groups – Joint Foreign Chambers also backed the tax reform program, and called on both Malacañang and Congress to give it top priority in order to improve the country’s investment climate, create more jobs and clear the way for inclusive growth.