Senate restores 20% tax on cosmetic surgery in tax reform bill
Sen. Franklin Drilon made the motion to have tax on non-essential services restored in the tax reform bill. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
On Senate Minority Franklin Drilon’s motion, the Senate restored on Wednesday the proposed 20-percent tax on “non-essential” services, including cosmetic procedures and surgeries.
The chamber had earlier deleted the said proposal, which was contained in the proposed tax reform measure.
READ: Senate drops cosmetic surgery tax from tax reform bill
But hours after it was deleted, Drilon took the floor and asked the chamber to reconsider its decision.
“Mr. President, in all the debates that we had for the past several hours, the underlying consideration in many of the decisions that our colleagues did was that we did not want to burden the public,” he said. “That’s why there’s so much resistance and even the committee chair had very serious misgivings about the excise tax on fuel because it affects the poorer sector of our society.”
The minority leader was referring to Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, who moved for the removal of the vanity tax.
“Here, Mr. President, this is a pure non-essential service,” Drilon continued. “This is a tax on cosmetic procedure which is just for aesthetic purposes and yet we don’t want to tax them? To me, Mr. President that’s totally wrong.”
“If we are taxing our people, our poor people through an excise tax increase in the prices of fuel, why can we not impose a 20-percent luxury tax or vanity tax for procedures, which will serve no purpose except for the aesthetic appeal? To me, as a matter of principle, that’s totally wrong,” he added.
Drilon then moved that the chamber reconsidered its earlier decision to remove the vanity tax from the tax reform measure.
No senator present in the plenary objected to Drilon’s motion. /atm
