Lawmakers are appealing to the government to ease the tax burden of Filipino families, batting for private auditing firms’ involvement in special audits of public funds.
“What the people and small business have the appetite and tolerance for are bills that will exempt income of specific sectors from taxes,” appropriations committee vice chairperson Rep. Juliette Uy of Misamis Oriental said.
This was seconded by Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera, a House deputy speaker, who added that the Filipino people “are not in any mood for any new taxes and increases in administrative fees because that has immediate impact on their already troubled daily cash flows.”
“No matter how small, no new taxes and no new increase in fees. We as their Representatives here in the House must be sensitive to and heed their sentiments on this. They cannot bear any more burdens given the pandemic and its economic impact,” she added.
Uy, a committee on ways and means member, said she is supporting a tax exemption on the honoraria and benefits of teachers and election precinct personnel on election duty.
“That should be tax-free. They should get their whole honoraria and insurance benefits for election services rendered,” she noted.
Herrera, for her part, said “the revenue generation options are therefore limited to improved collection, implement what is already in the tax laws and regulations but the burden of compliance must not be thrust upon the shoulders of taxpayers.”
“We must improve the withholding tax and substituted filing methods of tax collection. The revenue agencies must work with what they have now. Another way to improve revenue collection is to make sure businesses small, medium, and large should be allowed to operate as far as minimum pandemic protocols can allow. Let us allow businesses in the modified general community quarantine areas to operate as close as possible to 100 percent capacity,” she said.
BHW party-list Rep. Angelica Natasha Co said “it might be necessary now to authorize special external audits by the private auditing firms of some of the government agency budgets, especially the pandemic Bayanihan funds. Details on how these external audits can be done can be tackled in detail in committee hearings.”
Agusan del Norte Rep. Lawrence Fortun batted for a major change to the 43-year-old State Audit Code.
“Our State Audit Code is not the legal architecture our country needs for the challenges and demands of this 21st century,” he noted. Rio Araja