Groups urge passage of economic measures

PHILIPPINE business organizations and foreign chambers on Wednesday encouraged lawmakers to enact the remaining essential economic reform bills.

In a joint statement, the groups said they sent letters to House and Senate leaders, urging the Congress to pass the additional achievable reforms in the remaining session days of the 18th Congress.

The bills include the Ease of Paying Taxes; Open Access in Data Transmission; Philippine Creative Industries; Promotion of Digital Payments; Tax Reform Package 3: Property Valuation and Assessment Reform; and Tax Reform Package 4: Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation.

The Ease of Paying Taxes bill aims to simplify tax compliance procedures by segmenting taxpayers and better tailoring processes, enhance the portability of tax transactions and legislate the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights while the Open Access in Data Transmission bridge the broadband infrastructure gap by bringing in more players and significantly improve data transmission services throughout the country.

The Philippine Creative Industries Development Bill, meanwhile, defines the scope of creative industries to include audio and audiovisual media, visual arts, books publishing and printed media, digital interactive media, creative services and performing arts while the Promotion of Digital Payments bill mandates the utilization of digital payment in the collection of taxes, fees, tolls, imposes and other revenues and in the payment of goods, services and other disbursements.

Tax Reform Package 3: Property Valuation and Assessment Reform aims to establish a single valuation base for taxation through the adoption by local governments of updated schedules of market values while Tax Reform Package 4: Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation complements the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act by making passive income and financial intermediary taxes simpler, fairer, more efficient and regionally competitive.

Aside from these, the groups also urged lawmakers to ratify the reconciled version of the Philippine Transportation Safety Board Creation and Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Development Financing System Act.

The business groups also encouraged ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which is considered as the largest trade deal in the world.

"Philippine business groups and foreign chambers called on the House and Senate to pass remaining priority economic reform bills as Congress approaches the last two weeks of the 18th Congress," they said.

The joint statement was signed by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Bankers Association of the Philippines, Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines Inc., Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc., Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. and Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc.

Source: TheManila Times