Senators back co-ops’ fight to keep tax incentives

The country’s cooperative sector got a boost in the Senate with several senators expressing support for maintaining the tax incentive privilege of the coop movement as prescribed in the Cooperative Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 9520).

Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chair of the Senate ways and means committee, said that since there is no final version yet of the proposed Fiscal Investment Incentives Law that provides for the lifting of the tax exemptions, cooperatives have “nothing to worry about.”

“In principle, we are not really in favor of removing tax exemptions for cooperatives. Still early. They have nothing to worry about,” Angara said.

Special privilege

He added that cooperatives are not similar to companies which enjoy tax incentives because they are given tax exemptions not for economic benefits, but as a special privilege to this sector.

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. of the Senate panel on cooperatives said canceling the tax incentive privilege for cooperatives will kill the entire movement.

“The whole reason you want cooperatives is because you want small organizations to flourish,” Marcos noted.

Other senators who have also shown support for the cooperative sector include Cynthia Villar, Ralph Recto, Lito Lapid and Bam Aquino.

Partial victory

The cooperative movement, through its umbrella organization, the Philippine Cooperative Center chaired by Hamilcar Rutaquio, has opposed the provisions that will rescind the tax incentive privilege of the sector.

The sector gained partial victory in the House of Representatives when ways and means committee chair Rep. Miro Quimbo assured the small entrepreneurs and stakeholders that cooperatives will continue to enjoy tax incentives as stated in RA 9520.

He gave the assurance during a committee hearing which recently took up measures, including the bill filed by Cebu Rep. Gabriel Luis Quisumbing which seeks to repeal the tax incentives for cooperatives..

Quisumbing’s proposed measure expressly seeks to repeal Articles 60 and 61 of the Cooperative Code of the Philippines which grants tax incentive privilege for cooperatives.