Dominguez’s tax reform?

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 16 Mar 2017 by Romeo Bernardo

---

When President Duterte was asked in Tuesday’s press briefing whether he supported the tax reform bill, his answer was an unequivocal “Yes.” When pressed further about whether he also supported the increases in excise taxes on oil and automobiles embedded in the Department of Finance’s (DoF) package 1 of tax changes, he said the strangest thing, “I don’t know.” The President, who has made no secret of his lack of interest in economics, continued to explain that the tax reform law is “Dominguez’s”, referring to his Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, adding that it is Mr. Dominguez who needs to raise the money to fund the administration’s projects. Aware that the bill is facing “rough sailing” in congress, he said that he has called the Senate President and the Speaker of the House to support the measure (both happened to be seated beside him the press conference) and that “Dominguez explained everything.” Yet, despite the DoF’s expectation that the bill would have hurdled the lower house’s ways and means committee by now, before congress goes on a 1-1/2-month break through May 1, the committee has only approved it “in principle,” subject to the review of a newly-created technical working group, which may mean further compromises and chipping away of target revenue gains. Those working in the trenches know that even if they managed to get the reform proposal out of the lower house in fairly good form, they have a tougher challenge ahead in the Senate where members do not necessarily toe the administration line. In fact, the chair of the Senate committee on ways and means has been quoted as finding the DoF tax package “quite aggressive[1],” suggesting that the individual ...