BAGUIO CITY : Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan supports the call of President Rodrigo Duterte to reduce taxes being paid by low income earners and abolish the Value Added Tax (VAT).
Domogan on Tuesday said the move would benefit almost 80 percent of the Filipino people who were considered middle income earners, or those who receive a monthly pay of not more than Php 30,000. This would be a good move by the administration of President Duterte, Domogan said, but “my reservation to that is where will the administration derive the funds needed to deliver the government services to the Filipino people?”
Domogan said, “when I was in Congress representing Baguio City during the administration of former President Gloria Arroyo, we were able to pass the Value Added Tax (VAT) Law to fund the various infrastructure projects.” Domogan explained that the VAT enabled the line agencies to deliver the services to the people.
“If the present administration lowers the tax and abolish the VAT, where will they get the budget for the different agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and similar people oriented agencies?”
Annual operations budget per department increase every year plus project funding, which is not fixed considering the project cost in the proposal stage and the project cost in the implementation stage, Domogan explained.
Domogan said the administration may already have a solution to the questions, otherwise, they would not even propose to effect this change.