RP to pass telecom taxes

RP to pass telecom taxes

MANILA: The Philippine Congress will hold joint hearings to pass by year-end bills that will raise taxes on telecommunications companies and remove exemptions of lawyers and doctors from value-added taxes, President Gloria Arroyo said in a statement.

The two measures weren't among three bills that Arroyo said on Nov. 12 would be passed this year. Moody's Investors Service said on Nov. 9 it may lower the Philippines' Ba2 debt rating because Congress hadn't passed any of eight tax proposals Arroyo made in July. Ba2 is Moody's second-highest junk rating. Standard & Poor's issued a similar statement in October.

The telecom and exemption measures, plus a bill raising cigarette and liquor taxes that the Senate and House of Representatives are poised to pass, will raise the government's annual revenue by 30 billion pesos (US$534 million), Trade Secretary Cesar Purisima said in the same statement. -- Bloomberg