No senator wants to sponsor the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion 2, Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri said Wednesday.
“I would like to correct and clarify the impression that the Senate will not pass the TRAIN 2 measure in our chamber. That is not for me to decide alone,” said Zubiri.
“What I had said was it has very little support from my colleagues and as a matter of fact, no senator wants to sponsor the measure at this time,” he said.
Opposition Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV noted that the statements of Zubiri is a clear indication that nobody is interested in TRAIN 2.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III acknowledged that they were not comfortable in hearing the country’s economic managers saying that TRAIN 1 had no effect on inflation.
But Zubiri said they would have to conduct public hearings on TRAIN 2 once the House approves it.
“This is were we will all debate with our finance managers on the possible effects of this new tax reform package. Although we welcome the lowering of corporate income taxes, we need to look at the possible loss of jobs on the plan to remove incentives given to several industries including business processing outsourcing [BPOs] and export manufacturers, which number by the hundreds of thousands of people,” Zubiri said.
As the former chairman of the committee of trade and commerce, Zubiri said he has been briefed on the possible exodus of industries from the country if these incentives are lost.
Aquino maintained his criticism of TRAIN 1, blaming it for the high prices of basic commodities and fuel.
He criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for saying in his State of the Nation Address that TRAIN 1 had helped many people. He noted that this was contrary to what was really happening.