CONGRESS will not be able to pass the bill seeking to lower the income tax rates in the country due to “lack of time,” House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Monday.
He made the statement after President Benigno Aquino III rejected the measure.
“There are a few ideas and bills in the same category, and we hope that they will form the initial output of the incoming legislature, the 17th Congress,” Belmonte told reporters.
He made his statement even as Senator Edgardo Angara renewed his call to the government to simplify the process of tax filing and payment for micro, small, and medium enterprises or MSMEs in line with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member-economies’ call for more efforts to help small businesses penetrate the global market.
“If the Apec attendees and delegates have a special lane or treatment, this should be the same to small entrepreneurs,” Angara said.
“How we can make the Philippines MSME-friendly should be one of the priorities of the government after Apec as we all aim for inclusive growth.”
Belmonte said Aquino’s decision was expected since the chief executive had been against it.
“He’s against it. You better spend your time on something that will get approved rather than not approved,” Belmonte said.
He said Congress failed but it had exerted efforts to convince the President to favor the measure.
“It’s there on the record so people will pick it up in the next Congress for sure,” Belmonte said.
Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has expressed dismay over the President’s decision.
“The bill seeking to lower income tax rates is supposed to provide relief to Filipino workers, especially the middle class and low-income earners. We are saddened over the fact that the government failed to show malasakit [compassion] to our people,” Romualdez said
He also urged the President’s allies, led by Belmonte, to do their job and not to succumb to pressures from Malacañang.
“We urge the President’s allies in Congress to show malasakit by approving the measure in the Lower House despite the President’s opposition to the measure,” Romualdez said.
Rep. Barry Gutierrez, spokesman of Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II, said “there is a continuing study” being done by lawmakers and Aquino’s economic advisers on the matter.
He said it was necessary to consider the input from the Executive in any discussions on amending any law.
He said Roxas favors lowering the income tax rates he may not be in a position to convince the President to change his position on the matter.