MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Finance has maintained that the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act, or CITIRA bill, would generate 1.5 million jobs, countering the claims of business groups that the measure would lead to job loss.
Under the bill, corporate income tax rate will be gradually reduced from 30% to 20% and would “rationalize” or remove redundant tax incentives.
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Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said Monday that companies will invest at least 50% of their additional money from the reduction of the CIT rate in growing their business, which could create a total of 1.5 million jobs.
Chua was responding to a claim by John Forbes, who represented the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines at a Senate committee hearing last week, that the bill would force companies to cut jobs.
READ: Foreign groups see 700,000 job losses in CITIRA’s 1st year
“Morever, the new menu of incentives for investors, as proposed in CITIRA, will also encourage job creation and upskilling,” Chua said in a statement.
The CITIRA bill was approved in the House of Representatives last September 13 and is currently undergoing deliberations at the committee level in the Senate.