PHILIPPINE Racing Commission Chairman Reli de Leon yesterday appealed to the government to reduce the taxes on racing sales so they could plow more of the income into strengthening and developing the country’s horseracing industry and its charitable programs.
“We are asking our national government to align and lower our taxes on bets with other horseracing countries in Asia like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea,” De Leon said during the Philippine Sportswriters Association online forum.
Joining him in the public sports program backed by the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp., San Miguel, Smart, Amelie Hotel, Braska Restaurant and Milo were Philracom executive director Dr. Andrew Buencamino and deputy executive director Ronald Corpuz.
Corpuz said that taxes on bets currently stand at 29.5 percent, meaning the government takes that cut from the total winnings of the bettors, which is among the highest in Asia.
“In Hong Kong the tax is only 16 percent while in Singapore it is 20 percent,” he noted.
De Leon said the high taxes were the result of the passage of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017.
“This is why our betting public was somehow turned off by the development, so from a high of P8 to 9 billion in annual betting sales this was reduced to P5 billion, a huge difference of P3 billion,” he said. “We can fund our charities better with this rise in income from betting.
“We have already made representations with the national government explaining our position. If our taxes can aligned to that of Hong Kong horseracing, then our industry will be in better shape,” De Leon, a former marketing man, said of the industry that employs around 12,000 people
Despite the pandemic, he said that horseracing sales netted P555 million in the first six weeks of the year before operations were halted once again from March 13 to May 14 due to the government lockdown.
“But we still expect to generate P2 to P3 billion in sales until the end of 2021,” said De Leon, who also disclosed that racing fans locally and overseas can now place their bets directly through the online platforms of the country’s three racing clubs.
