Philippine's new tax reform can induce 60 million Filipinos income loss of up to 4,000 a year says the IBON.

The proposed tax reform package of the Duterte Administration is likely to affect about 60 million Filipinos.

This is what research group IBON Foundation said on the program “Get it Straight with Daniel Razon”.

Based on the figures the group gathered from the Department of Finance, a poor individual earning more than P5,000 monthly would lose P807 annually.

While those earning more than P19,000 thousand  a month will lose P3,800 every year.

The reason, IBON said, is because the cost of goods and services will go up when the proposed raising of taxes on sweetened beverages as well as on petroleum products pushes through.

A group of businessmen previously warned that when taxes are raised for such products, companies will be left with no choice but to increase the prices of their goods or services.

Critics say those who will carry the heavy burden are the poor.

“The point is, why would you charge too much those who have nothing to pay, and would make the lives of the rich easier?” IBON Executive Director Sony Africa said.

That’s why for Sonny Africa, what the government needs to do now is to focus on improving its tax collection.

Proof of this, he noted, is the government’s failure to collect P10 billion yearly from big companies.

Alliance of Concern Teachers (ACT) Party List Representative Antonio Tiño agrees with the analysis of the research group.

Tinio is in favor of imposing bigger taxes on vehicles, but not on sweetened beverages.

The lawmaker also emphasized the government should just properly implement the Sin Tax Law so it could collect more taxes.

Tinio is also not convinced that the poor will benefit from infrastructure or education programs that the taxes will fund.

He argued that the administration has even excluded the P8-billion fund in the 2018 proposed national budget that is supposed to be allocated for the free tuition of students in public universities and colleges.

The ball is now in the Senate after the Tax Reform Bill passed the Lower House of Congress.

“The public should make the government, especially the senators, that the imposition of excise tax is not acceptable,” ACT Party List Rep. Antonio Tiño said.