Duterte wants lower individual, corporate income taxes

Loud cheers greeted President Rodrigo Duterte at the Batasang Pambansa on Monday after he backed calls to lower income tax rates, a proposal that was flatly rejected by his predecessor Benigno Aquino III.

"On taxation, my administration will pursue tax reforms  towards a simpler, and more equitable, and more efficient tax system  that can foster investment and job creation. We will lower personal and corporate income tax rates," Duterte said in his first State of the Nation Address.

Duterte did not provide specifics but his economic managers had said the tax rates could be lowered from 32 percent to 25 percent, a system that remained unchanged since 1997.

"At the household level, there must be sufficient income for all Filipinos to meet the basic food and non-food needs for their families," he said.

"We shall continue attract investments that will generate thousands of jobs each year —jobs that are suitable for the poor and less skilled members of the workforce."

Reforms to ensure competitiveness and promote ease of doing business will be mandatory, according to Duterte.

"Reacting to these needs, the restrictions on the economy will be needed to make more investments to come and to develop labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism shall be pursued," he said.

The President also plans to relax the 60-year-old bank secrecy law, following the laundering through a Philippine bank and casinos of $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh central bank last February.

Duterte's economic agenda was premised on his commitment to continue and maintain Aquino's macroeconomic policies.

To achieve this, the President said economic planners will adopt "prudent fiscal and monetary policies that can help translate high growth into more and better job creation and poverty reduction."

"By the end of my term, I hope — I hope and pray — to hand over an economy that is much stronger,  characterized by solid growth, low and stable inflation,  dollar reserves, and robust fiscal position," he said. —JST, GMA News