Drilon appeals for ‘long overdue’ review of business tax perks

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday called for the immediate review of tax perks granted to business enterprises in the country.

“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 said this after the passage of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, saying it is unfair to “burden” the poor with higher taxes on fuel, while rich companies continue to enjoy all forms of tax perks and tax holidays.

Citing government data, Drilon said there are more than 186 laws on numerous fiscal and non-fiscal incentives and subsidies in the country, including income tax holidays, deductions, exemptions, credits or exclusions from the tax base.

Drilon said a review of the tax incentives given to companies is “long overdue.” The senator authored Senate Bill 229 or the rationalization of fiscal incentives.

Drilon’s bill seeks to review the government’s system of granting incentives to business enterprises in the country “to ensure that grant of incentives promotes social and economic benefits to Filipinos.”

The senator expressed hopes that the measure will be included in the second tax reform package.

“The government should review the various laws on the grant of tax incentives and plug the leakages in our tax system. 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,” he added.

The Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (TIMTA) 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. —ALG, GMA News