PNoy admin to push for passage of mining, fiscal incentives bills this year

Key economic bills to shore up government revenues are being readied by the Aquino administration for approval by the 16th Congress before the year ends, a Cabinet official said Tuesday.

“We are targeting to file the draft bills at the start of the new Congress… We hope to pass these at the end of 2013,” Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told businessmen and the media at The Joint Foreign Chambers’ of the Philippines Arangkada Forum: Realize the Potential!

Domingo was referring to the bill that would rationalize fiscal incentives and the amendments to the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

The fiscal incentives bill streamlining the tax breaks for businesses was at the forefront of the Aquino administration’s Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

Under the 15th Congress, The House of Representatives passed House Bill 4935 on August 19, 2011 granting tax breaks to exporters and limiting the income tax holiday for domestic enterprises to four years.

But in the absence of a unified Executive version, the Senate was not able to pass its version of the bill.

The Departments of Trade and Finance were locked horns on the type of incentives and the time frame during which qualified companies were supposed to enjoy such motivation.

The Executive has also yet to draft a bill on amendments to the law on mining, with the Cabinet cluster still reviewing the salient provisions. Among the likely amendments to the mining act are revenue sharing between the national and local governments and the limits to mineral exploitation.

Earlier this month, both Domingo and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said their respective departments reached a “meeting of minds” for the Executive version of the bill.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan earlier told reporters that the two bills are “likely to be drafted in the next LEDAC.”

The 15th Congress is now on break in the run up to the mid-term elections in May. They will resume for a week-long session in June.

Work, however, will go full-swing when the 16th Congress opens and new legislative leaders are sworn in.

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