Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said Sunday that he expects President Duterte to prod the Senate to immediately pass five bills approved by the House of Representatives during the first regular session of 18th Congress.
(PCOO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Four of these are economic measures and the fifth seeks the creation of an agency for overseas Filipino Workers.
"I hope the President gives the Senate a strong timeline to pass the bills we in the House already approved during the first regular session," the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means said.
He specifically sought the Senate's immediate action on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE), initially dubbed as the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (TRABAHO) bill during the 17th Congress, and eventually evolved into Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA).
He said CREATE needs to be passed, explaining that $12 billion has been lost over the past two years due to delay in the passage of the measure.
"The ambivalence on Package 2 of tax reform, now known as CREATE, cost the economy at least $12 billion in foreign investments since 2018. That is not to count the foregone domestic investment, that could have protected our economy even better during this crisis," Salceda,co-chairman of Economic Cluster of the House Defeat COVID-19 Adhoc Committee (DCC), said.
Salceda had earlier said COVID-19’s damage to the country's economy is estimated at 1.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or P218.5 billion on the assumption that the length of outbreak could be an entire year.
The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) No.4157 or the CITIRA in September last year.
CITIRA seeks to gradually reduce the Philippines’s corporate income tax (CIT) beginning 2021. It slashes the CIT from 30 percent to 20 percent.
The bill seeks to remove the option for corporations, including resident foreign corporations, to enable them to avail themselves of the 15 percent gross income tax.
The House of Representatives also passed on third and final reading the proposed Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA), the proposed Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, and the proposed Public Service Act, based on the House Committee on Rules report on the status of the 23 SONA priority measures.
The bill creating the Department of Filipino Overseas and Foreign Employment (DFO) was passed by the House.
The House already transmitted these five measures to the Senate for its action.
Salceda said as a good soldier to his commander-in-chief, the House passed all the tax reform measures requested by Duterte.
“The House’s performance during the first regular session exceeds its average historical performance, in my view, especially on fiscal and economic reform,” he cited.