{"id":75325,"date":"2016-05-03T05:53:07","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=75325"},"modified":"2016-05-03T05:53:07","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:53:07","slug":"economist-says-incoming-govt-needs-check-phls-tax-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/05\/03\/economist-says-incoming-govt-needs-check-phls-tax-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Economist says incoming gov\u2019t needs to check on PHL\u2019s tax rates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"shutterstock\"<\/a>
(ShutterStock image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 An economist on Tuesday said there is a need for the incoming government to consider a change in the country\u2019s tax rates to align it with neighbouring countries and attract more foreign investments.<\/p>\n

During the economic briefing jointly hosted by ING Bank Manila and the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) at Makati Shangri La, ING Bank Manila senior economist Joey Cuyegkeng said the country\u2019s tax rates were very high compared to other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe income tax reform is crucial also in terms of corporate income tax. We are in the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] community and our corporate tax rates are so high. If we are going to try to attract foreign direct investments [FDI], we have to also be aligned with our competitors abroad. There is a need to balance it out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The economist said any cut in the country\u2019s tax rate would definitely have a negative impact on revenues but pointed out that tax rates need to be \u201cresponsive to the times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to also try to unlock potentials of private sector initiatives in terms of infra investments in the rural sector,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Aquino government has discounted an adjustment in the country\u2019s income tax and instead favors a holistic tax reform to help the Philippines become among the high income countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government believes that instead of piecemeal changes in the tax rates, a holistic tax reform program is needed to ensure the continued implementation of essential programs on social protection, poverty alleviation, employment generation, educational competitiveness, housing, universal health care, as well as for public infrastructure and national defense and security,\u201d Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. earlier said.<\/p>\n

There are pending bills in Congress calling for lower personal tax among others.<\/p>\n

To counter the possible negative impact of these bills on national government’s revenues, the Department of Finance (DOF) has proposed for an increase in the value added tax (VAT) from 12 percent to 14 percent.<\/p>\n

Both proposals, however, remain unattractive to President Benigno Aquino III, who earlier in his term vowed against imposing new taxes.<\/p>\n

The only tax increase bill he signed into law is the amendment of the Sin Tax Law, which hiked taxes on tobacco and alcohol products since these were previously based on 1996 prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 An economist on Tuesday said there is a need for the incoming government to consider a change in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":60246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[10587,10586],"class_list":["post-75325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-joey-cuyegkeng","tag-phls-tax-rates","mauthors-joann-santiago","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}