Senator Villar pushes for tax breaks for victims of natural disasters
MANILA, Philippines—With an average of 20 typhoons battering the country year-round, wreaking havoc on agriculture, property and life, shouldn’t the victims be entitled to some form of tax exemption?
Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. has filed a bill allowing victims of storms as well as of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural calamities to deduct their losses from their annual taxes.
The idea, he said, was to provide provision relief to victims of natural disasters by granting them special deductions from their income and real property taxes equivalent to their losses.
“I’m pushing for the early passage of the bill considering that in the case of [Tropical Storm] Falcon alone, it was reported that more than 400,000 families were badly affected, mostly underprivileged and rural folks. While it will substantially affect fiscal collection, the need to help our kababayan in rebuilding their lives is important,’’ he said.
Falcon did not hit land but enhanced monsoon rains that caused heavy flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces from Thursday to Saturday, damaging infrastructure and property estimated at a least P54 million.
Senate Bill 2443 allows any person or a firm, whose immovable property is lost, totally or partially destroyed by natural calamities to deduct the total loss income and real property tax liabilities up to five years from the time of the destruction.
Immovable property refers to residential lands and buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, agricultural lands together with the plants and growing fruit trees, and permanently installed machinery intended by the owner of the building or structure for an industry or business.
“While government depends heavily on taxation to serve the people, the government must appropriately show its sensitivity to its vital and fundamental duty to safeguard and promote the public welfare through reasonable legislative measure which will help alleviate serious economic dislocations,” Villar said.
This is not something new.
According to Villar, Marikina City residents, whose homes were flooded when Tropical Storm “Ondoy’’ hit the metropolis in 2009, got a discounted rate on their real property tax, helping them to cope with the aftermath of the destructive storm.
“To those who sustain economic prejudice due to losses or destruction caused by these calamities, we must grant a reasonable deduction from their tax liabilities within a specified period as a means to alleviate the adverse economic conditions affecting them and to accelerate the pace of their economic rehabilitation,’’ he said.
