Councilor Peter Laviña, on the other hand, said he is against the proposal due to the fact that the government has promised that no new taxes will be imposed.
"If ever the government should impose new taxes, it should tax the rich and big corporations. Also the government should improve collection by running after tax cheats and smugglers," Laviña said.
According to Councilor Rachel Zozobrado, this would not only be an untimely opposition, it would also be an unreasonable burden for the people.
A study conducted by the National Tax Research Center (NTRC) showed that imposing taxes on text messaging could raised as much as P40.2 billion for the government.
This is banking on the fact that the Philippines is the text messaging capital of the world.
The study on the feasibility of imposing a tax on text messaging or short message service (SMS) offered by telephone companies showed that the proposed P0.50 per tax message could raise P36 billion in specific excise taxes and additional P4.31 billion in value added tax collections.
On the other hand, the government could raise P5.54 billion if it imposed a 10 percent rate per text message and P664.3 million in additional VAT collections.
In computing the revenue take under the proposal, the NTRC used the 2005 annual report of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Ayala-controlled Globe Telecom Inc.
The reports showed that Smart Communications and Pilipino Telephone Corporation, which are controlled by PLDT, as well as Globe have combined subscribers of 32.82 million.
ABS-CBN report said at an average of six text messages per day, these subscribers send at least 196.87 million text messages per day.
The National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) provides the imposition of excise tax on goods manufactured or produces in the Philippines for domestic sale or consumption or for any disposition. In addition, the code calls for the imposition of VAT for every sale of goods or services.
The two major forms of excise tax are specific tax that imposes a fixed amount based on weight or volume capacity or any other physical unit of measurement, as well as ad valorem tax that imposes a percentage tax rate based on the selling price or other specified value of the goods.
A total of seven bills have been filed from the 11th Congress up to the 13th Congress seeking to impose among others a seven percent Computer Education Tax, a seven percent Vocational and Technological Tax, a P0.50 specific tax per text message, and a 10 percent ad valorem tax on all cellular phone calls.
