“For many years, taxpayers have been unnecessarily overburdened by inequitable measures overlooking their respective capacities to pay,” a lawmaker said.
Quirino Rep. Dakila “Dax” Cua cited the proposed reduction of the personal income tax to 25 percent where those earning P250,000 below which account for 83 percent of taxpayers will initially be taxed 2,500.
At the other end of the spectrum, those earning more than P5 million will be taxed P1.45 million plus 35 percent of the excess over P5 million.
“Another measure with a similar principle is House Bill No. 4144, or the proposal to amend Section 145(c) of the Sin Tax Reform Law seeking to keep the initial two-tier system instead of the impending unitary tax system by 2017,” Cua said.
Cua said the proposed two-tier measure that imposes P32 on lower-tier and P36 on higher tier is higher compared to the original provisions stated in the original sin tax law. “Now if we are going to debate about health benefits, it is obviously more discouraging to the smoking public to purchase a pack of cigarettes with a P32-tax imposition compared to the original schedule of P30,” he said in a committee hearing.