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