Travel tax abolition up to Congress, says DOF chief Go

The decision to scrap the tax imposed on Filipinos’ overseas travel would be better left in the hands of legislators, Finance Secretary Frederick Go said. 

“We leave it to the wisdom of Congress,” Go said when asked about the Department of Finance's (DOF) position in a recent interview.

Go said that travel tax collections do not even go to the national government.

“There's none that goes to the national government. The total, I believe, the total travel tax revenue is P8 billion a year. So that's your estimate,” he said.

“Fifty percent goes to TIEZA, 40% goes to CHED, [and] 10% goes to the arts,” he added.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. included the proposed abolition of the travel tax on his administration’s priority list of legislative measures this year. 

House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander ''Sandro'' Marcos, son of the President, recently proposed the abolition of the imposition of travel tax for Filipinos traveling abroad for vacation, saying the said levy had already outlived its purpose.

House Bill 7443 aims to repeal Presidential Decree No. 1183 and related provisions of the Tourism Act of 2009 imposing a travel tax, which currently amounts to P1,620 for economy class travelers and P2,700 for first-class passengers.

Earlier, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco warned that scrapping the tax without a substitute fund could adversely affect the tourism sector. She explained that 50% of travel tax collections support tourism infrastructure such as tourist rest areas, visitor centers, and jetty ports.

About 40% of the funds go to tourism education through the Commission on Higher Education, and 10% are allocated for the preservation of heritage structures nationwide. —VBL, GMA Integrated News