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MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Finance will oppose any proposal for tax relief for all individual taxpayers if Congress will not come up with an offsetting measure that will generate revenue, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said.

Teves said the proposed tax relief passed by the House of Representatives would result in revenue losses of up to P12 billion, which he said the government could not afford at a time it needs to increase spending.

The department is amenable to granting tax exemptions to minimum-wage earners, which would cut tax collection by only less than a billion pesos, he said.

The House bill to seeks to raise personal exemptions of individual taxpayers to P50,000.

At present, individual taxpayers are entitled to P20,000 in personal exemption, heads of families P25,000, and married individuals P32,000.

“The amount of revenue to be lost from providing tax relief even to higher-income earners will be substantial,” Teves said. “We can support that only if there will be a measure that will help offset the foregone revenues.”

The Department of Finance is pushing for passage of a bill for a simplified net income tax system, or SNITS, which would help raise enough revenue to cover losses from the proposed tax relief, he said.

Under SNITS, self-employed and professional individuals would be entitled to a uniform rate of allowable tax deduction of 40 percent from their incomes to arrive at the taxable amounts. Michelle V. Remo; edited by INQUIRER.net

• Gov't urged to ax 'absurd' VAT on systems losses
• Lift royalty on natural gas and VAT on oil
• House keen on approving CARP extension -- Lagman
• Senate bill bans power firms from charging pilferage cost
• Gov’t considers scrapping VAT on oil
• Gov’t on track to meet revenue goals, says finance chief
• Double the budget
• Palace says scrapping or reduction of e-VAT on oil now eyed
• Arroyo orders release of P12.57B IRA differential to LGUs

• China wants new global monetary system
• Solons caution gov’t on privatization