Palace to push economic reform bills in congress

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Category: Top News

Published on Sunday, 02 June 2013 21:51

Written by Butch Fernandez / Reporter

MALACAÑANG is poised to ask administration allies in the Senate and the House to fast-track the approval of long-pending economic reform bills to help sustain the robust first-quarter 7.8-percent gross domestic product growth.

Palace officials confirmed that a number of “priority” economic bills that were sidelined to give way to the passage of the controversial “sin” tax bill, which raised the levies on cigarettes and alcohol products, would likely be endorsed anew for early enactment when the new Congress convenes in July.

Among them are the proposed Customs Modernization Act, amendments to the mining tax to increase the share of local governments from mining revenues to 7 percent from 2 percent, as well as the alternative fuel incentives bill granting tax breaks to manufacturers of so-called e-vehicles.

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Also to be endorsed is the bill rationalizing fiscal incentives to plug revenue leakages from perks that have no valuable trade-offs. The departments of Finance and Trade, however, have yet to reconcile their differences on the bill.

Finance officials have argued in Congress that some of these incentives are either archaic or are overlapping with each other. But the Department of Trade and Industry insists these are needed to lure more investments.

Most of the unapproved Palace priority bills were not even submitted for plenary consideration and got stuck in the congressional ways and means committees as Executive officials focused intense lobbying efforts in favor of passing first the sin-tax law, which targets some P20 billion in additional revenues, before Congress adjourned for the May 13 elections.

Malacañang expects to push for the quick passage of the pending reform measures and other remedial legislation it earlier endorsed,  given the control of Palace allies in the 16th Congress.

Palace Deputy Spokesman Abigail Valte on Saturday confirmed that the Office of the President had endorsed to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council a number of priority measures, including economic reform bills that would be refiled for consideration of the incoming Congress.