Mangrove donors to get tax break

Agham party-list Representative Angelo Palmones. congress.gov.ph

In a bid to encourage more people to donate money to save the mangroves, the House ways and means committee has approved a provision in a pending bill that would exempt mangrove protection program donors from donor taxes, and allows them to increase deductions to their taxable income.

The committee supported the proposed law seeking to put up a National Mangrove Conservation and Rehabilitation Program  by approving one of its sections that proposed the tax breaks.

Under the bill, all grants, donations, contributions and bequests to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the mangrove adoption program would be exempted from paying the donor’s tax.

These grants would also be an allowable deduction from donor’s income tax.

The Mangrove Conservation and Rehabilitation Program bill was authored by Agham party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones. The House committee on natural resources earlier approved the measure, but the bill had to go through the ways and means committee because it had a tax provision.

The bill seeks to improve efforts to protect mangroves in light of the many benefits that they provide.

For instance, mangroves protect coastal areas and communities from storms, waves and tidal currents. They also serve as nurseries for marine life and support fisheries production, as well as absorb organic pollutants near the shore. Leila B. Salaverria