Bongbong Marcos urges Palace to certify tax reform bill as urgent

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has urged the Malacañang Palace to certify as urgent the tax reform proposal pending in Congress.

“If Malacañang is really sincere in its promise of development for everyone, it should certify the bill as urgent,” Marcos said in a statement on Saturday.

Pegging taxable income rates to inflation, he said the proposal would alleviate the burden of Filipino taxpayers.

He said the Congress was running out of time to approve the proposal, citing the Senate was set to tackle the proposed 2016 national budget with the few remaining session days of the year.

The senator earlier backed calls to revise the existing tax bracket but said “Malacañang has repeatedly rejected it.”

“Our tax structure is simply out-dated that even those in the middle class are now in the bracket of the rich, paying tax for the rich. It’s time we do something to correct the situation,” he said.

Citing a study of IBON research group, Marcos said around five to six million Filipinos and their families were being doubly burdened by higher taxes and inflation.

He said that based on the data of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), prices of goods and services had more than doubled or increased by 110 percent between 1997 and 2012 but individual income tax brackets had remained unchanged since 1997.

The senator also cited reports of the latest Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) which showed that “income of the lowest-earning 70 percent of Filipinos had grown 137 percent between 1992 and 2012 and as a result, many of low and middle income families now have to pay higher taxes.”

Malacañang has repeatedly said that there is a need for a comprehensive review of the tax laws despite leaders of Congress pushing for the lower income tax bill.