Plight of gov’t workers

Government employees are up in arms against a revenue memorandum order that imposes taxes on allowances, bonuses and other benefits due all state workers. Twelve government employees' associations have petitioned before the Supreme Court to declare the memorandum order unconstitutional. Some employees wore black bands as a sign of protest against unjust taxation.

There are about 1.2 million government employees throughout the country who will be affected by this tax order.

Adding more misery to government workers is that the P2.6 trillion budget for 2015 carries no provision for salary increase. Instead, it provides a P5,000 performance incentive bonus and one-month salary. While there is no budget for salary increase, the government has set aside P2 billion in the national budget for the Bangsamoro Basic Law which is still non-existent considering that it is still subject for deliberations in Congress.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the national government had just finished the four-year salary standardization program for its officials and employees. Abad pointed out that having a new round across-the-board salary increase would entail a huge amount of money. The national government, including Congress, would have to look for new sources of revenue if it would grant such an adjustment, he added.

Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said: "We are just clarifying what income is taxable. A lot of agencies were giving bonuses and allowances but they were not withholding taxes."  Thus, she explained the rationale behind the memorandum order.

As a former government employee myself, I knew that there is a big gap in salary  between the rank and file and government executives. Ordinary government employees are living "a hand-to-hand existence" meaning, money passes from one hand to another during paydays. Upon receiving their salary, the employee pays his creditor for a loan. Ironically, we call these usurious lenders as BIR.

Let us have a comparative analysis as to their salaries. Under the Position Classification System, there are four main categories of government employees: a) professional supervisory, b) professional non-supervisory, c) sub-professional supervisory and d) sub-professional non-supervisory. The professional supervisory category has a salary grade from 9 to 33 with monthly salary ranging from 15,000 to 95,000; professional non-supervisory from 8 to 30 with 14,000 to 60,000; sub-professional supervisory from 4 to 18 with 10,000 to 28,000; and sub-professional non-supervisory from 1 to 10 with 8,000 to 16,000.

Section 3 (a) of Republic Act No. 6758 or the Compensation and Position Classification Act, states that: "All government personnel shall be paid just and equitable wages and while pay distinction must necessarily exist in keeping with work distinctions, the ratio of compensation for those occupying higher rank to those at lower ranks should be maintained at equitable level, giving due consideration to higher percentage of increase to lower level positions and lower percentage increase to higher level positions." 

Based on this premise, the BIR should take into consideration the plight of ordinary state workers before imposing them additional burden in the form of taxes from their allowances, bonuses and other benefits. The tax agency should go after the government executives and not the rank and file employees.

Pushing the government employees against the wall by unjust taxation will only encourage them to commit graft and corruption to offset what the government has taken away from them. Most rank and file employees are heavily burdened with debts due to lower salary. It is an act of cruelty to impose more taxes on whatever was left of their take home pay.  Taxing small government employees of their hard-earned allowances and bonuses will only add to the statistics of poverty in the country.