The second tax reform package may not be approved during the 17th Congress because of time constraints and lack of support from the Senate.
Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri stated this on Thursday as he urged government economic managers to push for “non-controversial” tax reform measures instead.
“I can see very little support from our colleagues on this. I’m just telling the truth…” Zubiri said when asked during a regular forum in the Senate if the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill could be passed within the 17th Congress.
Trabaho bill is also known as Train 2 or the second phase of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train).
Aside from lack of support, Zubiri said Congress has no time to approve the measure, citing the elections in May next year.
“We have very little time left,” he said.
Zubiri noted that it took one year for Congress to approve the first Train measure.
“It will be very difficult to push for it (Trabaho bill) in this Congress,” he said.
“I am appealing to the finance team. Why don’t you push for non-controversial tax reform measures first? Marami dyan,” the Majority Leader added.
Zubiri added that proposing new taxes when inflation is high would just scare investors and could result in more job losses.
“We just survived the high inflation. Kakalabas lang this week, na-freeze po ang pag akyat ng inflation. Mataas pa rin pero at least nag-slow down…hopefully by next quarter bababa po sya,” he said.
“ I think we should sustain that momentum sa pagbaba po ng inflation before we come up with new tax measures or tax proposals that would scare investors or pull out investors…” the senator added. /muf