Solon urges raising tax-free income threshold to P300,000 amid flood control anger

House ways and means vice chairperson Rolando Valeriano on Thursday called for raising the tax-free annual individual income threshold to P300,000 and scrapping the 12% value added tax (VAT) on electricity, amid public anger over the billions' worth of questionable flood control projects.

“The Filipino people’s anger over how their taxes have been malversed and plundered through ghost projects and substandard construction of infrastructure projects is justified. Reducing the tax burdens now, especially of the poor, low-income, and middle-income households is reasonable at this time,” he said.

“The non-taxable rate ceiling on income tax should be raised to P300,000 [from P250,000] because the value of money today has eroded since the new rate became law in 2018. Recent wage hikes have also placed some salaried workers outside of the non-taxable bracket,” he added.

Likewise, Valeriano said that the revenues lost from the removal of the 12% VAT on electricity can be easily recovered since it will result in increased consumer spending.

“I am preparing bills for these measures,” he added.

Valeriano also said that an effort to impose additional taxes on sweetened beverages, including 3-in-1 coffee, is ill-timed.

Representatives Krisel Lagman of Albay, Kaka Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands and Leila de Lima of ML party-list last month filed House Bill 5005 which imposes a P20 tax per liter of volume capacity on sweetened beverages using purely caloric sweeteners, purely non-caloric sweeteners, or a mix of caloric and non-caloric sweeteners.

“Given the present political environment, I do not believe the Filipino people will support any increase in any taxes this year or expansion of current taxes to include other taxable persons,” Valeriano said.

“As regards the proposal to increase taxes on soft drinks and other sweetened beverages, the existing tax provisions already have automatic provisions for inflation adjustments and increases,” he added. — BM, GMA Integrated News