@befrluntts q,vnrg-

'*--trw qsd. ffi trt $ B m t g rm # $; m * t

$'g"&

THURSDAY August 1s, 2019

House committee
OKs tax reform bill
THE House Committee on WaYs
and Means approved on Wednes-
day the Corporate Income Tax and
Incentives Reform Act (Citira) bill,
the second package of the ComPre-'
hensive Tax Reform Program of the
Duterte administration.
Voting 27-2, the Panel headed bY
Albay Rep. Ioey Salceda aPProved
House Bill 313, a substitute version
to the formerly named Tax Reform for
FffiefsrrnA2

ffi REFORM FROM A1

House panel OKs tax reform bill

Attracting Better and High-quality
Opportunities (Trabaho) blll.
The measure seeks to reduce
corporate tax from 30 percent to
20 percent after 10 years. It also
aims to rationalize tax incentives
by making them performance-
based, targeted, time bound and
transparent.
Despite opposition from Gabri-
ela Rep. fulene Brosas and Bayan
Muna Rep. CarlosZuate, the ways
and means committee endorsed the
measure for plenary deliberations,
invohng S€ction 48 of the House
initially approved
Rules as this was
on third and final reading by the
House in September 2018.
Section 48 seeks to fast-trackpri-
ority bills that have been approved
on third reading but had failed to
hurdle the last Congress.
Brosas said the bill would grant
"overlybroad power" to ltesident
Rod4go Duterte in ganting incen-
tivei,'as the *.mut. mindates
the government to utilize its
resources such as land use, water
appropriation, power provision,
among others.
"This is an overly broad power
being accorded to the President,
which may also worsen comrption
as those who would want to avail
this bonus incentive will bribe the
Chief Executive with commissions
and payoffs," she said.
Brosas added the measure could
not be separated from the "ar
poor" Train 1 (Ta* Reform f-. Ac-
celeration and Inclusion), which
was approved in December lastyear.
Finance Undersecretary Karl
Chua, one of the panel's re-
source persons, said the corpo-
rate incorne tax and incentives
system would pave the way for
tax incentives that are perfor-
mance-based, time bound and
targeted to priority industries.
"Every peso granted as tax in-
centive is a peso off the budget
that could have been':spent for
infrastructure, health,. education,
and social protection that benefit
all, and not only afew," he said.
The lawmaker noted that the
second package would be "reve-
ntl .-.,-uf0l."
salbeda said the lower chamber
seeks to prioritize measures that
. were based from the outcome
of the pre-Legislative Executive
Development Advisory Council
a few weeks ago'
GLEE JALEA

| 'FrA.octr r.lAG,€ u