No New Taxes to Cover Economic Deficit

Finance Secretary Carlos Domingez III on Monday said that the Philippine government will not impose new taxes to cover the economic deficit brought about by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Instead, the government will likely borrow from the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“Taxing our citizens when their incomes are down is not a good idea,” Dominguez said in a statement.

Dominguez explained that many people lost their jobs during the pandemic and most of them are barely surviving with what little they have.

Dominguez revealed that revenue collections dropped by 12% on September this year, compared to the same month last year (2019).

The Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s collection combined however, is 8.26% higher than the target of P1.6B from January to September.

Dominguez is optimistic that the economy will slowly rise as they are constantly looking for ways to resurface it. (MLC)