Editor'ial Tuesday, August 20, 2019

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 Congress determined
to avert budget delay
ETERMINED to avoid the disastrous for Acceleration and Inclusion Act 2, then further
three-month delay in the approval renamed TRA,BAHO, for Tax Reform for Attracting
of the National Budget for this year, Better and High-Quality Opportunities.
the House of Representatives Com- Aside from raising funds needed for the in-
mittee on Ways and Means announced it will creased 2020 National Budget, CITIRA seeks to
start deliberations on next year's budget on withdraw some of the tax incentives originally
Thursday, August 22. granted to foreign firms. The Philippine Export
On that day the committee, headed by Rep. Zone Arithority @E,ZA) fears it will discourage
Isidro Ungab of Davao City, will open committee foreign firms from corning to the Philippines but
discussions to give every member enough time to the early start of deliberations in the House should
raise any concern with the executive officials who -giv6'eVeryo+e the opportunity to have his say.
drew upthe proposed budget. There is one other factor that must be taken
In the Senate, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, into eonsideration in the enactment'of bills, par-
ehairman of the Senate Committee on Finanee, ticularly the critical ones like the National Budget.
assured that the senat6rs will work closely with This is the election in May, 2022,when the nation's
the House to make sure everything humanly pos- political leaders focus on the all-important task of
sible is done to pass the budget in a responsible electing the nation's next president.
and timely manner. Months before the eleetion, politicians will be
Since the 2020 budget - for F4.1 trillion -will deep into this political exercise in varying degrees
need more funds than lastyear, the House has also of involvement. Thus Secretaryof Finance Carlos
FAqA be'gun early t6 act on bills providing for these addi- Dominguez lll hopes Congress witl be able to
tional funds This early, the House Ways and Means finalize action on all important economic bills,
Ab Committee has already approved two important including the National Budget bill, long before
tax bills - one increasing the tax rates on alcohol election issues hinder swift congressional action
production and the other reducing the corporate on them.
income tax,but "streamlines" the tai incentives It is good that our leaders in Congress are mov-
granted to foreign frrms to induce them to locate ing this early on the National Budget Bill, for we
in'the Philippines. must avoid the three-month delayin the approval
This latter tax bill is the Corporate Ineome of the current 2019 budget that set back so many
Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA), which projects and has kept us from achieving our Gross
was originally known as TRAIN 2,forTax Reform Domestic Product goal for this year.