Ledac bares 11 priority measures

MANILA, Philippines — The Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) has identified 11 priority measures of the 18th Congress, but has rejected the third installment of the Bayanihan economic stimulus package.

Rep. Joey Salceda, the House tax panel chief, said the priority reforms identified by the Ledac were the Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives for Distressed Enterprises (Guide), Package 3 (Valuation Reform), Package 4 (Passive Income and Financial Intermediaries Taxation Act), Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization, Foreign Investment Act, Agri-Agra Law, Medical Reserves Corps Act, creation of a Disease Prevention and Control Authority, tax regime for Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo) and for Off-cockpit Betting Stations (OCBS), and pension reform for military and uniformed personnel.

‘Tax them right’

Salceda said the enactment of the revenue measures, such as the tax regime for Pogos and for OCBS, would be crucial for the government to strictly monitor these industries.

“Right now, absent any regulations, Pogos and OCBS are free to do much of what they want, and we are unable to tax them right. The TRO (temporary restrtaining order) on Pogo taxation also complicates the matter. The laws we are trying to pass are TRO-proof,” he said.

“It’s important that we close the deficit as we start recovering. That means tax policies that generate revenue but do not hurt the people. We also need policies that expand the economy and expedite recovery,” he added.

Last month, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo filed House Bill No. 8628, or the P420 billion Bayanihan to Arise As One Act, also called Bayanihan 3.

‘Keep an open mind’

Sought for comment, Quimbo urged the economic managers “to keep an open mind to having another economic stimulus package.”

Quimbo said the economy “is at an all-time low,” suggesting that “we need to drive household spending.”

“But we also need to sustain small businesses because [aid] cannot be forever. Hence, we need a more expansive [aid], for families, workers, small businesses, as well as students and teachers,” she said.

“We need to provide cash assistance to farmers and livestock producers whose crops were destroyed and animals killed because of the typhoons and [African swine fever], all of which contributed to high food prices. We need to help students and teachers because any form of schooling disruption will impact our global competitiveness,” she added.

Quimbo said “we have the funds, as we had been able to secure almost P3 trillion worth of loans.”

She said “our current stimulus spending pales in comparison to our Asean neighbors, less than 3 percent of 2019 gross domestic product compared to Singapore’s 18 percent and Indonesia’s 5 percent.

“There are also existing programs that can implement a P420 billion economic stimulus program, including the social amelioration program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the small business wage subsidy of the Department Finance and the Social Security System among others,” she said.