Tax reforms hit as antipoor
Civil society groups slammed the recently approved tax reform package in the House of Representatives, calling it antipoor for the proposed excise tax on sugar and fuel commodities.
Eduardo Tadem, president of Freedom from Debt Coalition, said while the tax reform lowered the personal income tax, it also took away from taxpayers by increasing consumption taxes.
“We feel that consumption tax is inherently regressive,” he told a press briefing in Quezon City on Wednesday. “The poor and the middle class spend more, or even their entire income on consumption. Higher income groups spend less, if at all.”
The groups also said that measures planned by the government to cushion their impact, such as the conditional cash transfers, would be sourced from the revenues from the excise tax.
Instead, Tadem offered alternatives to the provisions of the current substitute bill, including raising the threshold of the personal income tax.
Mike Garay, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino secretary general, said the real measure of income tax exemption should be the living wage, not the minimum salary.
“The cost of living measures how one family can live decently,” he said.
Using data from the National Economic Development Authority, the groups suggested that the threshold should be raised from the proposed P250,000 to P374,000. This is based on the living wage of a family of six that would need around P1,200 per day. —WITH REPORTS FROM PAULINE FAYE TRIA
