Wednesday, September 01, 2004 Budget chief: New taxes needed to prevent crisis
MANILA -- Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin said Tuesday that government must have to impose new taxes in order to prevent a fiscal crisis.
Boncodin said Senator Ralph Recto, Senate ways and means committee chair, was mistaken in saying that the budget deficit could be addressed by improved tax collection.
She added that the present sources of revenues are not enough. What's more, government would need to sacrifice basic services in order to be able to save enough to plug the ballooning deficit.
The problem, according to Boncodin, is not limited to the collection of taxes but government must also improve the structures of taxes to prevent further problems in finances.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said government is aware of the impact of its fiscal plan on the ordinary people and is putting the necessary safety nets to ensure that most of the marginal sectors would be spared.
However, he did not elaborate about the safety nets nor did he identify them.
"We encourage everybody to consider the need to sacrifice now for the sake of lasting economic stability. We must all be concerned about what might happen in the future if we will not do something to address the problem today," he said.
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