House OKs amusement tax reduction measure

MANILA, Philippines - After five years, a measure seeking to reduce amusement taxes has moved closer to becoming a law after its passage at the House of Representatives. Senator Ramon Revilla Jr., who sponsored a counterpart bill that the Senate passed in June last year, thanked the Lower House for the bill’s its approval. "After almost five years of pushing for this to become law, we are finally there. This will greatly help our struggling motion picture industry," he said in a statement posted on the Senate website. www.senate.gov.ph If passed into law, the measure will reduce amusement taxes on movies from 10 to 30%, thereby helping the local movie industry to grow. National Cinema Association of the Philippines (NCAP) president Roesholm Camaligan thanked both Houses of Congress for the measure's approval. "The local film industry is very grateful. We see their recognition of the importance of movies in the development of our people, and in preserving and promoting our national values, culture and heritage. We are particularly thankful to Senator Bong Revilla, who initiated this effort and stuck with us to the end. This will surely provide the film-viewing public with incentives to once again watch movies in theaters and cinema houses," he said. He added that with the measure, the industry can "upgrade our facilities and make the movie-going experience more pleasurable and memorable." "We may even be able to eventually reduce ticket prices if circumstances will permit, but definitely, prices will not increase and people will get more for their money," he added. Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) chairman Esperidion Laxa, Solar Entertainment president Wilson Tieng, film producer Dominic Du, NCAP Director Secretary Ed Sason lauded the measure's approval. Revilla noted the movie industry is among the heaviest-taxed in the country. He said that aside from other factors such as film piracy and high cost of production, the movie industry is hampered with numerous tax impositions. These include the 30% amusement tax, 12% Value Added Tax (VAT) on materials on both production and post production processing, another 12% VAT on gross ticket sales, income taxes and other fees, charges, licenses, and permits. "It is no exaggeration to say that our movie industry is one of the most, if not the most heavily taxed industries in the country. It is very unfair that the movie industry is taxed more than other more capable industries," he said. He stressed that the Philippines heavily imposes taxes in the movie industry compared to other countries such as South Korea which imposes only 7.5% of gross as taxes on motion pictures and Thailand, which does not impose VAT and only an equivalent of P1.50 in municipal taxes. In Taiwan, he said government imposes only 7.62% of gross as taxes on films; Singapore 3%; Indonesia 20%; France 11%; Germany 2%; Greece 4% to 12%; Israel 2.5 %; Italy 9%; Lebanon 5%; Portugal 7 %; Switzerland 0.15%; and Malaysia 25% to 31% VAT. - GMANews.TV