Drilon pushes law to rationalize tax perks for businesses

Senator Franklin Drilon called on President Duterte to exercise strong political will by directing his administration to pass a law rationalizing the grant of fiscal incentives to business enterprises in the Philippines.

“I call on the President to exercise strong political will. He made a company pay the unpaid airport fees of P6 billion. He was able to collect from a cigarette company P26 billion. We applauded such political will. We would like such political will being applied in order to make the taxes more equitable,” Drilon said on Wednesday.

“I urge the administration and the Congress to start working on the rationalization of fiscal incentives granted to companies so that we can make our tax system more equitable,” Drilon said.

Drilon authored the Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (TIMTA), which requires business entities to report all the incentives that they are enjoying, allowing the government to account for the amount of foregone revenues from various incentives given

“The TIMTA has already provided the tools for transparency in the grant and management of incentives. The next step would be to rationalize these incentives,” Drilon added.

The measure could generate P30 billion in additional revenue annually if enacted, Drilon stressed.

He said it would be “utterly unfair” for the poor to share the burden of raising revenues under the newly-signed tax reform law while rich companies would continue to enjoy all forms of tax perks and tax holidays.

“The Train (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) burdened the poor with higher taxes on fuel. It’s about time that we review the incentives granted to companies to see if such incentives are necessary and continue to serve the purpose for which they are granted,” Drilon said.