Angara pushes for tax reforms, uses Facebook hashtag

Senator Sonny Angara. FILE PHOTO

Senator Sonny Angara took to social media on Friday to push for tax reforms, saying the government must offer real solutions to regular people otherwise, he said, “growth is just a facade masking inequalities.”

“Still pushing for #TaxReform despite the clock ticking and political season fast approaching (I’m not a candidate next year),” Angara wrote in his Facebook account.

“Government has money it cannot even spend because of absorptive capacity issues of departments. We could’ve done it already so why not a win-win reform where the working class taxpayers are at the center?” he said.

READ: Angara urges Palace, Congress to expedite income tax reform

The senator lamented that the government has been underspending, noting the hundreds of billions of unused balance in 2014.

“We are talking about as little as P800 a month for a new public school teacher. Ipagkakait pa ba natin yan?” said Angara.

Asked in a text message what he meant by the P800 a month he was referring to in his post, the senator said, it was the projected increase in the take home of a public teacher, “assuming we index (the tax brackets) to inflation.”

“Because we haven’t indexed our tax brackets/tax rates since 1997, a new public school teacher’s take-home pay (in real peso terms, meaning adjusted for inflation) is even less today than in 1997 as a result of being in a higher tax bracket due to inflation—this is despite an increase in their salary through the Salary Standardization Law,” he said, still in his FB post.

READ: Overtaxing working, middle classes

“Is that progress? These are real lives and real people. Government must offer real solutions to regular people otherwise growth is just a facade masking inequalities. We must aim for a society where the hardworking are rewarded and have a chance to move up. #TaxReformNow,” the senator added.

Besides, Angara said, the government will benefit from these tax reforms since the workers will also spend the money anyway.

“That taxpayer spending will boost GDP (gross domestic product), which at 5% is below government target (7-8%), and will also boost government revenue because of the VAT (value added tax) on spending,” the senator said.

Angara said good economic policies must look at both the larger/macro picture as well as the micro situation—how people and families are really faring. Maila Ager/RAM