DOF: Tax reforms set sans Duterte clout

The Department of Finance (DOF) is confident the administration’s tax reform packages will be passed within the 17th Congress even without President Duterte lifting a finger.

“If you look at the tax reform package, and see and weigh the benefits and the pain that it might cause, you won’t need to use any political capital because it’s a good package. So [President Duterte] may not even have to spend a single iota [of political capital] on this tax package,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said in a statement.

Dominguez earlier said, however, that the President committed not to sign tax proposals that would not have compensating measures for revenue-eroding reforms, such as lower income taxes.

The DOF had separated its tax reform program in six packages, noting it would be easier to legislate them.

“The last big tax reform package took five years to pass, two Congresses. I hope to finish it in one Congress, three years,” Dominguez said.

For the first package under House Bill No. 4774 currently being tackled in the House of Representatives, the DOF eyes passage in June this year for partial implementation in the second half of the year and finally a full implementation by next year.

HB 4774 contained the DOF’s proposal to lower personal income taxes, broaden the value-added tax base by cutting down on exemptions, increase excise taxes on petroleum and automobiles, and reduce the estate and donors’ tax rates.