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| Albay Rep. Joey Salceda. (Photo from: Presidential Communications) |
[아시아뉴스통신=조날드 타파난 기자] The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee stressed the need to pass economic reforms that will enable more investments to enter the country after plunging into pandemic-induced recession in the first half of the year.
In a statement, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, panel chair, said Congress should prioritize the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) bill, which is one of the legislative priorities identified by President Rodrigo Duterte in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA).
The proposal seeks to reduce the corporate income taxes (CIT) to 25 percent from the current 30 percent. Salceda also called for the immediate approval of the proposed Retail Trade Liberalization Act, Public Service Act, and the amendments to the Foreign Investments Act. The government reported a 16.5-percent economic contraction in the second quarter, deeper than the revised -0.7 percent in the previous three months and the lowest since 1981.
Salceda noted that investments in infrastructure and human capital development must be made either this year or next year to ensure that the bite out of the Philippine economy will not translate into permanently lost income. He also highlighted the need to make wise investments in agriculture, which grew by 1.6 percent despite the quarantine measures in place.
