MANILA, Philippines -- Telecommunication companies are warning that they will be forced to raise the cost of text messaging and eventually scrap unlimited texting if a measure in Congress mandating them to remit half of their revenues to health and education would be passed into law.

From the current P0.27 centavos, Froilan Castelo, head of Globe regulatory affairs, said the “blended” price of text -- which included the unlimited text and other promotional services of telecommunications firms -- would become P0.40 centavos or an additional P0.50 centavos for those spending P1 per text message sent.

“So hindi na namin kayang suportahan yung [we can no longer support] unlimited texting. That’s the bottom line there. We can no longer support that because the business case now differed, nag-vary na [it has varied], kasi iba na ang cost mo ngayon [because the cost is different now],” Castelo told reporters after attending a hearing at the Senate.

“Magbabago na yung business case to support the unlimited texting [The business case to support the unlimited texting will change]. Because of the additional cost, hindi na namin pwedeng suportahan yung ino-offer currently [we can no longer support the current offer]. Magbabago yun [That will change] so that means less value to the subscribers. Instead of, before you are enjoying a P20 unlimited texting for the entire day, hindi na naming yun mai-offer dahil iba na yung cost [we can no longer offer that because the cost has changed],” he said.

The same goes with SMART consumers, according to the company’s legal manager, Roy Ibay.

“I would assume it would roughly be the same also because the industry now is very, very competitive and our margins are actually getting smaller and smaller,” Ibay said.

Instead of remitting 50 percent of their revenues as proposed under Senate Bill 2402, Ibay suggested an automatic appropriation of the telecommunications firms’ tax payments to health and education.

“That will be much simpler and will also not provide any additional burden anymore to our consumers,” said Ibay.

In opposing the proposed legislation, Ibay also pointed out that the telecommunications industry was also affected by the world economic crisis.

“What we’re saying is that don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg at the moment,” he said.

“We understand that telecommunications industry is also right now in an economic slowdown so any proposal by the government to tax any of its service or text service should probably undergo though examination first -- a study because even if the objectives might be noble, the aggregate economy also is at stake here,” he said.