Former finance secretaries and top economists expressed strong support to the urgent passage of the remaining four packages of the Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program.
They manifested their support through a joint statement signed in a meeting last week with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III; Senator Pia Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on ways and means; and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, who chairs the House committee on ways and means.
The remaining four packages of the tax reform program, which are currently being deliberated in Congress, are Package 2 or the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act, Package 2+ or the “sin” tax reform further increasing excise taxes on alcohol and e-cigarettes, Package 3 or the Real Property Valuation Reform and Package 4 or the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act.
The statement was signed by former Finance secretaries Cesar Virata, Alberto Romulo, Margarito Teves, Roberto de Ocampo and Jose Camacho, former National Economic and Development Authority heads Cielito Habito and Arsenio Balisacan, Fermin Adriano of the Asian Development Bank Institute and Filomeno Sta. Ana of the Action for Economic Reforms.
The economists and former DOF heads said in a joint statement these tax reforms along with the proposed amendments to the Public Service Act, the Foreign Investments Act and the Retail Trade Act would help the Duterte administration achieve its twin goals of attaining an “A-minus” sovereign credit rating in the next few years and reducing poverty incidence from 21 percent in 2015 to 14 percent by 2022.
The signatories also lauded the economic feats that the government achieved in the first half of the Duterte presidency despite the global financial headwinds.
“We commend the implementation of the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program to support inclusive economic growth, the quick measures taken to address elevated inflation last year and the close coordination with both houses of Congress that led to the passage of landmark reforms, such as TRAIN [Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion], the additional increase in excise taxes on tobacco, the Rice Tariffication Law, the National ID Law and the Ease of Doing Business Law, among others,” they said.
