The Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act, approved by the Lower House last week, is now considered the most significant economic legislation in the country, second only to the 1987 constitution with a positive footprint on almost every sector of our economy.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, House Ways and Means committee chair and lead author of the measure, said CITIRA or HB 4157, approved on third and final reading with a vote of 170 affirmative against eight negatives and six abstentions, was the center piece legislation of the Duterte Administration, the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program.
President Duterte has designated CITIRA as the country’s principal national response to the US-China trade war. “It rearranges our economic structure by lowering the income tax on one million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which employ most of our labor force while rationalizing incentives of 3,100 corporations and make them perform,” Salceda said.
All told, CITIRA will create 1.566 million jobs, add GDP growth of 1.1 percent in the first year and 3.6 percent annually from 2020-2030, while adding only 0.9 percent to inflation, he added.