Voting 170 against eight with six abstentions, the House of Representatives on Friday approved on third and final reading the Corporate Income Tax and Incentive Rationalization Act, originally known as the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities.
House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, House committee on rules chairperson, said the House leadership, led by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, had been working very hard to swiftly pass pending measures aimed to create a better investment climate and to generate more job opportunities.
“The 18th Congress will step up to the plate. Lifting Filipinos out of poverty is the top priority of President [Rodrigo] Duterte in the next three years through meaningful programs,” he said.
Romualdez is the president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats and Philippine Constitution Association.
Congress earlier approved on third and final reading the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA) and a bill imposing additional excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and vape products to ensure the country’s high and sustainable economic growth performance.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, House committee on ways and means chairperson, said the measure seeks to lower corporate income tax from 30 to 20 percent and rationalize business incentives.
“We rationalize incentives so they could be targeted to investments that could generate more investments and more jobs,” he said.
CITIRA is the second package of the President’s comprehensive tax reform program.
“The etymology of CITIRA is gift from God, so let us make it work for everyone, especially for the next generations,” Salceda said in a statement.