MANILA, Philippines - A lower revenue take of at least P40 billion is being considered for a revised sin tax measure from the original P60 billion proffered by the Department of Finance (DOF), Sen. Ralph Recto said yesterday.
Recto said Sen. Franklin Drilon, the acting chairman of the ways and means committee, should now come out with a committee report using the new P40-billion target of the DOF.
?But I don?t know if the 40 is realistic. But let them come out with the report of 40 and let?s talk about it. Let?s have a debate on it. Is that realistic, responsible, we will find out,? Recto told reporters in Filipino after emerging from a Senate caucus.
In a press conference yesterday, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima admitted that they were willing to settle for at least P40 billion but would not drop their original request for P60 billion.
?We will stick to the P60 billion but what we want is not what we always get. P40 billion is a minimum. It (P60 billion) is a number that will allow us to attain our objectives of financing healthcare and to discourage sin products,? Purisima said.
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares said the P60 billion would allow the government to implement its health and social programs more effectively.
Purisima, Henares, Health Secretary Enrique Ona, and Presidential Legislative Liaison Officer Manuel Mamba met the senators during the caucus to discuss the sin tax issue and apologize for the controversy sparked by disagreements over the sin tax measure. The controversy prompted the resignation of Recto as ways and means committee chairman.
After the caucus, Recto said ?apologies were made and accepted.?
?The sentiments were expressed that it would be better they come out with the highest number, the P60 billion that they were talking about. Let us start from that. That was the sentiment of many senators,? Recto said.
A consensus was supposed to be made on what to do with the committee report on the sin tax bill, but Drilon had to leave early to catch his flight to Quebec, Canada for an Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting.
Intellectual property
Recto said the new chairman should come out with a new report and not use what he had prepared and sponsored in the plenary.
He said that the report was his intellectual property which he had ?elegantly written.? Recto declared the committee report withdrawn upon his resignation as ways and means committee chairman.
?Why use my report? I guess it is because mine was well written. Why would they use my committee report if they think it was so bad? Why would they plagiarize my committee report?
?Let?s just wait for the new chairman?s report. One thing or the other, there will be a new chairman?s report. Let?s wait for them,? Recto said.
He suggested that a new committee report be crafted, based on the version submitted by the DOF or on the bill filed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Both versions seek additional revenues of P60 billion for the government in the first year of implementation.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, like Recto, also batted for a new committee report.
?If they use the committee report that is already in plenary then it means that they are accepting the report of Recto as correct and they will just amend it,? Enrile said in Filipino.
?But if the others do not agree to amend it then it would be better to bring the report back to the committee and come out with a new report, which would be the basis for debates,? he added.
Drilon on Tuesday said he wanted the committee report retained to ensure that the sin tax measure gets approved by December or early January next year.
The four officials from the executive branch were invited by Enrile primarily to hear the side of Mamba about the report quoting him as saying that a sin tax bill has not been passed since 1997 because of lobby groups in Congress.
Enrile had delivered a privilege speech denouncing the report but later said there was no need for an investigation.
Sen. Sergio Osme?a III said the apology issued by the executive officials was accompanied by an explanation that Mamba had been misquoted in the news report.
?They were all very nice. They were apologizing. Recto accepted their apologies,? Osme?a said.
?But this is the first time that I?ve seen him (Mamba) in my life. The legislative liaison officer that never comes to the Senate,? he added.
No choice
But even as finance officials have expressed openness to a compromise, President Aquino expressed belief most of the senators, particularly those seeking re-election in the May 2013 midterm polls, have no choice but to support the Palace-backed version of the sin tax bill.
?There are several senators who are opting to run in next year?s elections, incumbent senators who will ask for reelection. And how can anybody say that they are opposed to an effective sin tax measure that is there in politics?? he told a gathering of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines at the Manila Hotel.
?So, do we need a Plan B if it doesn?t pass? I really am confident it will pass,? he said.
?Will it pass given the tightness of the schedule? I think there is sufficient time to really thresh out all of the details and come up with something that they can fully support,? Aquino maintained.
?We are meeting with the senators. The executive is meeting with the senators, precisely to again state our positions with regard to the rate and various other details to the sin tax version,? Aquino said, referring apparently to the Senate caucus attended by Purisima and Henares.
?We have stated the same to our allies in the Senate of how important this measure is, as well as the AMLA (anti-money laundering act) measures amongst others,? Aquino emphasized.
The Chief Executive cited improvements in tax administration under his more than two years of administration.
?Tax administration has improved under our watch by a significant two percent,? he said. ?You know, the only tax we want to impose or we want to have an increase of is the sin tax issue. We started at 13 percent tax collection, we are now at 15 percent, the target is 18 percent.?
The opposition bloc in the House of Representatives also vowed to press for the passage of the original version of the sin tax reform bill approved by the chamber.
House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the majority coalition had adopted the proposal of the opposition bloc regarding the two-tier taxation system on tobacco products as well as certain provisions on distilled spirits. - Paolo Romero, Rhodina Villanueva, Sheila Crisostomo, Delon Porcalla, Iris Gonzales
Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=860619&publicationSubCategoryId=63
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