Senate plans to convene a committee of the whole
The Senate plans to convene a committee of the whole so that all senators can grill economic managers on the comprehensive tax reform package that President Rodrigo Duterte wants the chamber to pass in its entirety.
The decision to convene the body came as many senators, including Sen. Sonny Angara, who chairs the ways and means committee, have expressed reluctance to pass the tax measure in its entirety because the tax increases would cause inflation and affect many industries.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said on Wednesday that he and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III agreed that the committee of the whole would be a good venue to discuss the tax reform package and address senators’ concerns.
Sotto said he made the suggestion after the majority bloc listened to government officials on the income tax reform, part of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion measure.
He said he was alarmed that while low-income taxpayers would be provided some relief as promised by Mr. Duterte during the 2016 presidential campaign, the tax increases were bigger than the tax breaks.
Sotto said the tax breaks would be P140 billion (individual taxpayers with P200,000 to 300,000 a year income would not be taxed) compared with the tax increases amounting to P900 billion.
“It defeats the campaign promise of the President and that’s the issue of many members of the Senate,” he added.
Sotto also said it did not help that the government was not spending its budget allocations amounting to almost P1 billion since last year.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the unspent budget could be used to cover the social service requirements that Mr. Duterte had promised to the people.
Lacson said senators sympathized with Angara whose reelection bid in 2019 might be affected since he was in charge of presenting the Senate version of the tax bill.
He cited the case of Sen. Ralph Recto, who lost his reelection bid after he helped the Arroyo administration pass the value-added tax bill that angered the people.
