MANILA, Philippines - Government think tank National Tax Research Center (NTRC) should be independent and not under the Department of Finance (DOF) to enable it to widen its scope of research and ensure its unbiased position on tax issues, a lawmaker said.
Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo said the NTRC should be an independent research entity from the DOF and should preferably be under the Congress or the Office of the President.
“It should not be under the DOF, because if you are under the DOF, you are really just concerned with revenue collection and fiscal position. How about the investment side with DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)?” Quimbo told reporters.
“The NTRC used to be under Congress, it was a joint oversight research center. Now that it’s under the DOF, what the DOF wants, they would follow,” he said.
Republic Act 2211, signed in 1959, institutionalized tax research in the Philippines and formed the Joint Legislative Executive Tax Commission (JLETC).
The commission, however, was dissolved in 1972, when martial law was declared and later converted into the NTRC by virtue of presidential Decree 4 signed by former President Ferdinand Marcos. It was then under the supervision of the National Economic and Development Authority.
In 1987, ex-president Corazon Aquino made the NTRC an attached agency of the DOF in accordance to Executive Order 127.
The NTRC is mandated to conduct research in taxation for the purpose of restructuring the tax system and raising the level of tax consciousness of Filipinos, ultimately, driving faster economic growth and ensuring equitable distribution of wealth and income.
Meanwhile, Quimbo also expressed doubt that the DOF would achieve its target of implementing the first package of the CTRP by the middle of the year.
“It’s not gonna happen, I think, because we will start on May 2, and then the Senate will have to hear it. I’m not very optimistic that it can be finished by then,” he said.
He said the DOF’s proposed amendments to increase excise tax on fuel and to impose personal income tax rates to entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals at a fixed rate of eight percent would have the most difficulty hurdling the House Committee of Ways and Means.