-I
Palace, Congress list
5 billsforOctober0K
HE Executive and Legisla-
tive departments on Mon-
day identified five bills that
o\ thdytarget to passedbyOctober.
be
t-{
After attending a small group
6l Legislative-Executive Develop-
\o
+r
(,)
ment Advisory Council.(Ledac)
3 meeting with leaders of the 18th
bD
t Congress in
Maiacafrang, House
Committee on Ways and Means
>1
eg Chairman Joey Salceda said they
Ert) committed to legislate-revenue-
o
-= positivepolicies. ' ' l
F Salceda said these revenue mea-
E sures are bills increasing excise
tax on alcohol products, Corporate
Income Tax and Incentive Ratio-
nalization Act (Citira) and amend-
ments to the Public Service Act.
Salceda has refiled House Bill
1026 or the Package 2 Plus of the
Comprehensive Tax Reform Pro-
gram (CTRP), which proposes ad-
ditional excise taxes on tobacco
and alcohol products.
HB 1026 sbeks to increase the tax
on alcoholproducts to approximate
the 40 to 60 percent sharing of al-
cohol and tobacco expenditures.
This bill seeks to increase the
:€xcise tax rates on alcohol prod-
ucts and the indexation rate to 10
percent to account for inflation and
income.
Salceda has also refiled the
Citira, formerly known as the
"Trabaho'n bill, to encourage in-
vestments by bringing down the
corporate income-tax rate from 30
percent to 20 percent and to mod-
ernize investment tax incentives
to enhance fairness, improve com-
petitiveness, plug tax leakages and
ippines, needed arnending.
He saidconsumers often experi-
ence high prices and poor q,r"lity
of basic services in the Philippines,
because only a few local players or
oligarchs effectively control the
market.
"Competition and foreign in-
vestment are .inhibited, because
limitations that should only apply
to the operation of a public utility
are usually also applied to all public
services. This situation is caused
by the ambiguity in the definition
of public utility that is often used
interchangeably with public service
under Commonwealth Act 146 or
the Public Service Act," he said.
The lawmaker said the key to fix
this probiem is to develop a clear
statutory definition of apublic util-
ity by amending the Public Service
Act.
This bill propose,s to further
amend the Public Service Act to
effect the necessary changes in
the antiquated provisions of the
law to increase its relevance to
contemporary concerns, in the
, interest of providing the general
public with more choices, better
services and lower prices. This
bill also prescriber i t2-purcent
cap on rate of return and pro-
hibits income tax as operating
expense for rate-determination
purposes for public services,
including public utilities, con-
sistent with administrative and
judicial pronouncements.
Salceda, meanwhile, said the
bill creating the Department of
Overseas Filipino Workers and the
bill institutionalizing the Mala-
sakit Center will also be passed
by October.
"Hopefully we could finish these
afive-bills this August," Salceda said.
Eldier,MajoiityLeaderMartin
G. Romualdez said House commit-
tees may irnplement the one-hear-
ing-only rule on measures that have
been approved on third and final
, readingbythe 17th Congress.
Citing House Section 48, Ro-
mualdez said that "In case of bills
' or resolutions that are identified
aspriority measures of the House,
which were previously f,iled in the
immediately preceding Congress
ported upon the approvalof major-
ity of the members of the committee
present, there being a quorum."
2020 budget
MEANWHILE, Salceda said the Pal-
ace will submit the 2020 National
Expinditure Program to Congress
on August 1-6.
"The House targets to pass the
national budget before October 5,"
Salceda said.
Like the 20tg budget, Salceda
said the 2020 national budget will
follow the modified cash-based
\\1.AG€ * Ae."
system. lovee Morie N, Dela Cru'