THE top official of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said that the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High Quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill isbeneficial for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The House Committee on Ways and Means recently approved Trabaho as a substitute bill for the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) 2.
PCCI president Bing Sibal-Limjoco, at the sidelines of the Franchising Seminar in Bacolod City last week, told SunStar Bacolod that SMEs will benefit from the decrease of corporate income tax as provided by the proposed bill.
Sibal-Limjoco, also the vice chairman of the Philippine Franchising Association (PFA), said the corporate income tax will be reduced to 20 percent by 2019 from its current 30 percent.
With the impending decrease, underground businesses are expected to surface and pay corporate income tax.
Sibal-Limjoco also expressed optimism that the “digitalization” of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will address issues on underground businesses in the country.
The online tax payment under BIR’s modernization will help encourage small businesses to surface, she said.
The PCCI official said they are still monitoring the implementation of the Ease of Doing Business Law with implementing rules and regulations (IRR) up for approval yet this year.
In May 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the new law which mandates all government agencies, including local government units, to slash processing time for business permits and official documents.
Moreover, Sibal-Limjoco argued that the Train law is not the sole cause of high inflation rate.
Train 1 came at the time when prices of oil and other petroleum products increased in the world market and when the value dollar became stronger than peso.
“Despite the excise taxes, the price in the world market went up,” she said, adding that the tax reform law is good for the country if seen at a bigger picture.