SENATE Minority Leader Franklin Drilon believes the proposed second tax reform package will not push away investors as claimed by critics.
Drilon gave the reaction after many of his colleagues in the Senate were wary about sponsoring the
second package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law.
Drilon explained that there are now 14 agencies promoting investments by granting incentives.
"That is why in the last Congress since the rationalization was not on the agenda, I pushed for the Tax Incentive Management and Transparency Act (Timta)," said Drilon.
In his explanation, Drilon said Timta was crafted to "require reporting from the recipients of the incentives to provide data on the benefits of the incentives granted to them," noting that "they are
supposed to report as to what benefits the people would have, like in terms of employment generation."
Drilon said it is high time that the government rationalizes the incentives that are being granted to foreign investments. He noted that the country still lagged behind other Southeast Asian Nations in attracting investments.
The necessary remedial measure, Drilon said, will rationalize existing tax incentives to avoid abuses and the so-called perpetual perks.
Drilon said his position has always been to support the sin taxes that the Duterte administration is pushing specifically on cigarettes and liquor as he brushed off concerns aired by some senators that
rationalizing incentives may turn off investors.
The senator from Iloilo said it is not about the Train 2 that will push away investors insisting that there should be a favorable environment for them.
But most of the senators said there should be a thorough review of Train 2 given the inflationary effects of Train 1 that reached 5.2 percent based on the recent studies which are very far from what the economic
managers projected.
Train 2 was endorsed by President Rodrigo Duterte during his last State of the Nation Address (Sona).
Angara said the elections for next year will be part of the problem in passing Train 2 because of the expected busy schedules of most lawmakers who will be running for the May 2019 elections.
"As the 2019 elections near, you cannot have hearings, no one goes to Congress, we don't have sessions, that's a factor to consider," said Angara, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee. (PS Jun Sarmiento/VoxPop Philippines)