Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the country’s biggest labor group, has challenged the Department of Finance (DOF) to come out with the assessment study from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank that millions of jobs would be created with the passage of the Corporate Income Tax and Incentive Rationalization Act (CITIRA).
In a statement, TUCP Vice President Luis Corral said the DOF claims that 1.5 million new jobs will be created once CITIRA becomes a law, but asks the department how and what kind of jobs would be created for millions of Filipinos looking for employment.
“We hope they did not pick out that number out of thin air. Where is their study on jobs that will be lost and jobs that will be created because of CITIRA? We gently ask the DOF these questions, because once the worker loses his job when CITIRA is passed, he will find there are no new jobs out there,” Corral asked..
The TUCP said around 700,000 workers in the country will be affected by CITIRA because it would push investors to transfer to other countries.
CITIRA, the second package of the Duterte administration's comprehensive tax reform program, seeks to reduce the corporate income tax (CIT) rates from the current 30% to 20% in 2029, on a staggered basis.
It also aims to foster a more competitive fiscal incentives system by making tax perks time-bound, transparent, targeted, and performance-based.
The labor group criticized the DOF for spreading "half-truths" for the passage and approval of the CITIRA.
Creating more jobs and retaining existing ones should be the centerpiece of any economic reform. It should not just be about blind compliance to World Bank prescriptions by the book, he said.
He said the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce have warned that 120,000 direct hire jobs will be lost and that 580,000 indirect hire jobs will go down the drain should CITIRA becomes a law.