SENATE President Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday said the Senate will try its best to pass the CITIRA bill on or before June 3 as requested by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III in a bid to attract more investors and help the country’s economy bounce back amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CITIRA bill seeks to rationalize tax incentives being enjoyed by industries and gradually lower corporate income tax from 30 percent to 20 percent over the next 10 years. Certified as urgent by President Duterte last March, it has yet to pass second reading as it is still in the period of interpellation.
“We will give it our best effort,” Sotto said when asked if the bill can be passed on or before June 3, adding amendments to CITIRA will still have to be studied.
“(We) will see during the period of amendments,” he added.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon, however, doubts if CITIRA can be passed on or before June 3 given the short period of time the Senate has before it takes a sine die break on June 5.
“I support the CITIRA law. It will ‘rationalize,’ which actually is a reduction of the incentives, now enjoyed by investors. Whether or not it is the right time to ‘rationalize’ incentives is open to debate. The senators, I believe, are divided on this issue,” Drilon said.
“Moreover, the Senate only has six session days to debate, amend, pass and do the bicam. Is there enough time?” Drilon said.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said the passage of the bill needs careful study amid the global recession due to COVID-19.
“We need to tread carefully given the drastically different economic environment. First rule is probably to not lose any of the present investors we already have since the investment outlook doesn’t look fantastic going forward. We should study what our neighbors are doing as we will inevitably be compared to them,” Angara said.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said that while he understands that the government needs to raise funds for economic recovery, “I am wary of imposing more taxes on businesses already on the verge of bankruptcy and closure and individuals who have either lost their jobs or whose incomes have shrunk considerably.”
He said the government economic managers should consider securing more loans rather than impose additional taxes to help fund the economic recovery efforts.
