MANILA, Philippines – The proposal to allocate half of the telecommunication companies’ revenues from text messages to education and health programs has gained support from the House of Representatives and the Department of Finance, but lawmakers are opposed to any new taxes.
Sen. Richard Gordon clarified yesterday there would be no new taxes imposed on mobile telephone users.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he would not support any new tax on text messages, saying that the government should instead improve its tax collection system.
Gordon called on the more than 60 million mobile phone subscribers to back his text income measure as Speaker Prospero Nograles and Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the proposal would help fund education and health programs of the government.
Nograles said Gordon’s move was a good sign to encourage people to practice “text for a cause.”
“There will be no additional cost on texting. Based on our estimates, our telcos still rake in a lot a profit at a cost of 50 centavos per text. So instead of cutting down on the cost of texting, telcos should allocate at least 20 percent of their profit to a trust fund for education and health care. This way, our texters will be texting for a worthy cause,” Nograles said.
Nograles also proposed the creation of a board composed of telecommunications heads and the secretaries of the health and education departments that would manage the “exclusive trust fund” to ensure that it would be spent only on the upgrading of schools, hospitals, and health centers nationwide.
Nograles said collecting P20 centavos per text message would earn the health and education departments no less than P340 million per day based on estimates that l.7 to 1.9 billion text messages were sent every day in the country.
Teves also welcomed the proposal to collect part of telecommunications companies’ text messaging revenues and allot it for health and education, saying the government needs more funds for social services.
He said imposing new taxes on text messaging would be the call of Congress.
“If the new taxes can generate revenues, we would appreciate it,” Teves said.
Gordon’s proposed measure, Senate Bill No. 2402 or the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP), states the funds needed for the country’s education and health care requirements will be taken from the estimated two billion local text messages sent daily.
Gordon was glad that more people were now seeing the merits of his measure as a way of finding concrete solutions aimed at improving the pitiful state of the country’s educational and health care system that had slowed down the nation’s progress.
Nograles clarified that his proposal “is not meant to be an additional burden to the public but instead, it should be taken out from the regular cost being charged by mobile phone service providers.”
He said that based on House estimates, telecommunications companies are making a lot of profit at a cost of 50 centavos per text message sent.
“Telcos should allocate at least 20 percent of their profit to a trust fund for education and health care. This way, our texters will be texting for a worthy case,” he said.
Nograles said last Sunday that the imposition of a 20-centavo text tax that would go to an education and health care fund.
His suggestion immediately drew protests from tens of thousands of cellular telephone users and from mobile phone service providers.
“I do not think that people will object if they know that this fund will all go to health care and good education for our children. Right now, the promo rate is 50 centavos per text. We can tax 20 centavos, to up the cost to 70 centavos, but the 20 centavos must all go exclusively to health and education and nowhere else,” Nograles said. – With Jess Diaz