FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III credited the government’s success in pushing a tax reform package aimed at reducing poverty and inequality in part to the key reforms put in place by past administrations.
Dominguez said the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, which is the first package under President Rodrigo Duterte’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, was a logical continuation of decades of reforms passed by previous administrations.
He mentioned the efforts of former Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III in ensuring the passage of legislative measures that paved the way for the Duterte administration to carry out the tax reforms needed to make the country’s system fairer, simpler and more efficient.
“… We have not forgotten their achievements. We will build on these past gains and do better,” Dominguez said during the 69th inaugural meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines held at the Shangri-La, The Fort in Taguig City.
Dominguez also took note of the support of organizations such as the MAP for the successful enactment of TRAIN, which slashes personal income tax rates while raising additional revenues to help fund the government’s infrastructure modernization program and increased spending for health, education, and other social services.
He said the TRAIN, which will help fulfill President Duterte’s “promise of real change,” provided the government with a robust revenue stream for programs in support of the administration’s agenda to achieve high inclusive growth by modernizing the nation’s logistics backbone, upgrading public services and improving living standards.
Dominguez said the country’s stable fiscal position was the result of the years of work of the previous administrations, especially those that carried out austerity programs to lift the economy out of the debt crisis.
He cited the passage of the value-added tax reform law in 2005 under President Arroyo, which saved the Philippines from a fiscal crisis and allowed the economy to grow robustly in the last 14 years.