MANILA, Philippines — A House panel on Tuesday agreed to exempt the hugely profitable Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. from paying income taxes, despite the objections of finance officials who said the government needed the revenues from the gaming firm.

The House ways and means committee passed the measure without any objection from all the members present.

The bill, authored by Manila Representative Amado Bagatsing, would turn Pagcor into a government-owned and -controlled corporation, which would exempt it from paying the 30-percent income tax.

Bagatsing explained that Pagcor should not have been made to pay income taxes in the first place as it funds socio-civic and poverty alleviation programs of the government.

He also pointed out that Pagcor already remits 5 percent of its earnings to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and half of the balance of 95 percent goes to the National Treasury.

This means that Pagcor’s revenues are already turned over to the government even without taxation, and taxing it would be an essentially useless exercise, Bagatsing said.