MANILA, Philippines – The fate of the proposal to reduce income tax for millions of salaried workers will now be up to President Aquino’s successor and the next Congress.
Marikina Rep. Romero Federico Quimbo, principal proponent of lower income tax in the House of Representatives, said yesterday he and his colleagues would re-file their bill in the 17th Congress, which will convene in July.
“We will definitely re-introduce it. It will be up to the incoming administration to support it and prod lawmakers to approve it,” he said.
Quimbo chairs the House ways and means committee. His Senate counterpart, Juan Edgardo Angara, has said he would re-file his counterpart bill. Their bills call for adjusting tax rates, which have not been tweaked since 1997, only for inflation purposes.
Both have given up hopes that the current 16th Congress would approve their proposal with President Aquino’s repeated statements opposing it. Aquino also dismissed it as a mere “papogi” (to make oneself look good) measure.
Quimbo’s and Angara’s colleagues have taken up the cudgels for them, saying they do not need “pogi” points. They said Angara is not up for reelection next year, while Quimbo is running unopposed in his Marikina district.
After Aquino’s “papogi” criticism, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the House would no longer tackle the reduced income tax proposal in the remainder of the current third and last regular session of Congress.
“Unless the President is 100 percent for it, it’s no use taking it up in the limited time we have. If he’s against it, you better spend your time on bills that will be approved instead on those that will not be approved,” he said.
However, he said the move in both chambers to cut income tax has not been for naught.
“The fact that it has been discussed to a certain extent, it’s there on record. People will pick it up in the next Congress for sure,” he added.
Opposition and administration congressmen have accused Aquino of not listening to his “bosses” by rejecting workers’ clamor for lower income tax.
“The bosses have made their will very clearly in every survey, media scanning and congressional hearing. They want tax reduction, period,” Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, who belongs to the ruling Liberal Party, said.
He cited the joint statement of 18 business and labor groups led by the Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP) expressing support for reduced income tax to correct the “inherent inequity in the personal income tax system.”