Marcos: Congress should reform nation’s tax system

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his second State of the Nation Address.

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. urged Congress to pass laws that are aimed at amending taxation in the country.

He made this request during his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.

The Chief Executive explained these measures are needed to be passed to make the country progressive.

He enumerated the legislative pieces he wanted to be enacted into laws.

“Once again, I appeal to Congress for its support for the following priority legislations:

The essential tax measures under our medium-term fiscal framework such as excise tax on single-use plastics, VAT (value added tax) on digital services, rationalization of mining fiscal regime, motor vehicle users charge, the military and uniformed personnel pension, amendment of the fisheries code, amendment of the anti-agricultural smuggling act, amendment of the cooperative code, new government procurement law, new government auditing code, anti-financial account scamming, Tatak Pinoy law, the blue economy law, ease of paying taxes, LGU income classification and the Philippine immigration act,” he said.

Several of the bills Marcos mentioned have yet to reach final readings in Senate and House of Representatives.

One of this is titled ‘Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension for Uniformed Personnel’ that is up for committee deliberations in the House.

Another one is a measure titled ‘Tatak Pinoy’ or ‘An act mandating the formulation, financing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a comprehensive Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) strategy.’

The bill was filed in Senate on May 23, shortly before Congress closed its first regular session.

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