Anda di halaman 1dari 3

1

MANTILLA, JASMINE SARAH M. JANUARY 10, 2018


AB JOURNALISM 4B PROF. ENAGE

Critic Paper: Tax Reform Law in the Philippines

The TRAIN’s Vision on Eradicating Poverty:


Compromising the Citizens’ Social and Economic Stability

Republic Act 10963, otherwise known as Tax Reform for Acceleration and
Inclusion (TRAIN) was fully implemented on 1st of January, 2018. Signed by President
Rodrigo Duterte on December 19, 2017. According to the official website of Department
of Finance, the initial package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) was
designed to a “just, simple, and more effective system of tax collection”. Its goal is to
regulate various shortcomings in tax system, making it accessible and efficient in order
to give advantage to the poor by initiating more government programs and services
through collecting bigger contribution from tax payers. In implementing this law, can
impact on the income of Filipinos, prices of goods and services, and even the pattern
people spend and consume.

In every implementation like this, TRAIN faces pros and cons in the economic
debate. Whether it is something that will be beneficial to the people in the long run or
will cause worry to the poor citizens in the present.

TRAIN is designed for the following advantageous outcomes. It aims to lower the
Personal Income Tax (PIT) of individual taxpayers who earns below two hundred fifty
thousand pesos annually. However, those who earn above the given amount and the
top individual taxpayers have to pay will face a considerably higher tax rate.
Additionally, TRAIN is outlined to collect tax on goods and commodities produced or
sold within a country and on licenses granted for certain activities such as sugar-
sweetened beverages, automobiles, petroleum and diesel fuel gas and even tobacco.
2

The government will collect new excise taxes that wasn’t done before. Those taxes
accrued from these will be allotted to the programs and activities of the government for
the poor and in eradicating poverty in the Philippines. In the future, it is believed that
Filipinos will enjoy the benefit of high middle income status. As it is said to bring more
money to the pockets of the Filipinos.

Notwithstanding, this tax reform law still stirs debate as many believe that this
implementation will only affect the poor as well. As taxes will be topped to several
necessities, it will become more difficult for the poor to afford these basic commodities.
The poorest 60 million Filipinos will pay more taxes under the proposed tax package
with higher prices on food, drinks, LPG, transport fares, electricity, housing and other
basic goods and services they consume. Cannot actually help to make the Filipinos
take-home pays increase, rather it will only teach us to look at our taxes in a different
perspective. Moreover, although minimum wage earners, PIT and additional tax
exemptions are lifted, because income tax starts to be paid upon reaching an annual
income of P250,000 a year – it is possible that they will be subject to income taxes in
the future if the minimum wage reaches the first taxable income tax bracket as increase
on wages will be applied. Which means, minimum wage earners who are exempted
from tax collection are still vulnerable to higher costs of living.

Furthermore, the social protection measures that comes with the implementation
of R.A. 10963 is considerably ambiguous. TRAIN has a social protection component
wherein poor citizens will be provided with cash transfer for the targeted 10 million poor
Filipinos through Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). This is in order to protect
them from the consequence of more expensive commodities. It comes along with
Pantawid Pasada, a scheme of cash cards for public utility vehicles to offset the the
negative impact of increase in excise taxes in oil. For me, the idea of the said projects to
help underprivileged Filipinos are not supplementary enough than giving them real jobs.
Assuming that this project can last for a few years, the measure is only temporary and
the poor of the country will continue to struggle in the burden of this tax reform scheme.
Thus, making the poverty-stricken more penniless.
3

Furthermore, the biggest partition of the tax collection is said to be for the
flagship of infrastructure projects which the current administration is concentrated on.
Economically-active regions such as Cebu and Metro Manila will greatly benefit with
this. However, regions that are poorer obtain only a small portion, marginalizing the
well-off area to the poorest ones.

Lastly, although this tax reform program ca lead to beneficial outcome in the
future, putting the people’s stability on the line is crucial and has to be thoroughly
reviewed. I hope that later on, the government will provide a stronger foundation in
protecting the majority of Filipinos who are experiencing indigency.

Anda mungkin juga menyukai