A lawmaker on Friday warned Congress against enacting a proposed measure imposing additional taxes on fuel and yet exempting oil smugglers and corrupt state revenue collectors from prosecution.
Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. cautioned his colleagues against passing the Palace-backed comprehensive tax reform measure that was approved by the House committee on ways and means on Wednesday, even as he stressed the need for government to improve revenue collections first before passing a new tax measure.
Citing a statement by Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua during a congressional briefing on the proposal, Teves said the DoF official admitted that government can easily raise P230 billion annually if only the Bureau of Customs can ensure efficient revenue collection.
That amount is P16 billion over the estimated P214 billion government expects to gain from imposing the P6 per liter excise tax on diesel fuel as proposed under the bill.
“Before we start imposing additional taxes, we should first improve our collection on present tax and duties due the government,” Teves stated.
“When we have already collected all taxes due the government and find out there is still a deficiency, that’s the time to impose additional tax measures.”
Teves, who chairs the House committee on dangerous drugs, lamented that instead of taking a determined bid to plug tax loopholes and strictly implement tax laws, government finance managers “opted for an easier way out” by pushing Congress into passing additional taxes, particularly on fuel.
He warned that enacting the measure will impact on the lives of majority of Filipinos “who are mostly law abiding.”
“Why are we making the citizenry take the burden of additional taxes when the needed funds can be collected by the Bureau of Customs if they just do better with their mandate?” Teves said.
Should the Duterte government be successful in winning the war against drugs and criminality, Teves said there can be no reason why it cannot guarantee victory in battling smugglers, tax evaders, and corruption in the BoC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“This is the easiest way out. Imposing new taxes to raise government revenues instead of raising money through efficient tax collection and strict execution of revenue laws is what the bill intends to achieve,” said Teves.