Negros Oriental businessmen laud Duterte move to reform tax system

CEBU, Philippines - The business sector in Negros Oriental praised President Rodrigo Duterte for spearheading tax reforms in the country, one of which is the lowering of corporate and personal income tax, as well as relaxing the bank secrecy laws.

Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI) president Ed Du said, “this is good news for businesses especially for the micro, small and medium scale industries, which constitute 99 percent of the country’s economy, while only one percent is considered big taxpayers who can readily afford to pay the 30 percent income tax.”

Du told The Freeman businessmen are pushing for the Singapore model, especially for micro small and medium scale industries, to entice them to invest more because they can already afford to pay a lower corporate tax at 15 percent, the lowest in the ASEAN region.

However, Duterte did not mention in his SONA how much is the reduction of the individual and corporate tax. (FREEMAN)