PCCI Pushes for Enactment of Priority Economic Bills


14/09/09 - The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, together with other Philippine business groups and the foreign chambers of commerce in the Philippines, strongly urges the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the following economic reform bills before the 14th Congress ends:


1. Amendment to the Customs Brokers Act (SB 3396) which is on its second reading;

2. Department of Information and Communication Bill (SB 2546) which is on its second reading and was endorsed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her SONA;

3. Freedom of Access of Information Bill (SB 3308) which is on its second reading;

4. Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives Bill which is pending in the Economic Affairs Committee;

5. Simplified Net Income Tax Scheme (SNITS) which is pending in the Senate Ways and Means Committee;

6. Anti-Smuggling Bill which is pending in the Senate Ways and Means Committee;

7. Amendments to the BSP Charter Bill which is pending in the Senate Ways and Means Committee;

8. Land Use Bill which is pending in the Natural Resources Committee;

9. Residential Free Patent Bill which is pending in the Constitutional Amendments Committee; and

10. OECD Tax Compliance Amendments which is pending in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.


In their letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and House Speaker Prospero Nograles, the business groups emphasized the importance of the passage of the aforementioned priority economic legislation to effect rapid recovery of the Philippines from the global economic crisis and to improve the competitiveness of the Philippines.

PCCI is also strongly pushing for the passage of the Electricity Rate Reduction Act and the Uniform Franchise Tax on Distribution Utilities authored by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile into law.

attached is the letter of PCCI to the President dated June 9, 2009. Fyi.

puro pending ah... matapos pa kaya yang mga yan bago election next year?
bilis bilisan naman nila!

We will keep an eye on this, as at least we know the agency is doing something only they don't have the authority to execute plans, hirap na, we may blame them of not doing anything whereas the problem lies on the issue of the action plans permissible to the laws.

As they may have the ideas but not allowed to do so.I'm not sure,perhaps there should be adjustments on the system in the Phils. Those that make objectives more speedy and practical, and so realistic, after all, if one will be found a bit ineffective then another change can be possibly put into action and that should also mean in less delay. It's such a waste of time eh waiting for approvals, those time wasted should have been used up to more productive activities......

I have always wondered why the Philippines could not make payment of taxes so much easier. It takes me no less than 20 minutes to pay my annual income tax here in Thailand. One time, I even asked our office accountant to file my income tax online!!! Can this be done in the Philippines today?

Agree ako sa anti-smuggling! Pero maraming viajero na bumibili ng goods from Pratunam ay matatamaan. Dapat din nilang linisin ang Customs sa Port area at NAIA.

Ang dapat din nilang gawin ay i-encourage ang private sector to become more active sa merchandizing. Tulad dito sa Thailand. Mismong kay-liit na siudad ng Chiang Rai, may OTOP fair.

On top of that, mayroon pang weekly Saturday walking street fair sa gitna ng Chiang Rai. Every Saturday, from around 3 pm to 11 pm, they close off an inner city street so that shops could be installed in the middle of the street.

Participation by local people is off the charts! At first, they said that they would hold it only until the start of the rainy season (last May). Sales was soo good, the participating merchants continued even through the rainy season. And you know what, the rainy season is almost over...

How did this happen? The Chiang Rai City major endorsed the project!

Ms Demi Noor wrote:

Parang yon nga ang problema sa atin, one can't just do something kasi kailangan pa po ng maraming approvals kasi din we have to follow the rules. I don't know but I hope there's enough authority given to some officers in the government or officials so they can do things they want in their respective areas of responsibilities, after all, those people were supposedly put there due to their capabilities of both handling and running the area,or city. I'm really confused on this issue like at what extent a Mayor can decide on things, and so the Governors and the Representatives...

ang hirap naman intindihin nyan.

ano ba yang Customs Brokers? airport customs?

pera ba yang Information and Communication Bill? 100 dollar bills?

Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives Bill? ano ration ng bigas?

yon Anti-Smuggling Bill, alam ko yan!

Simplified Net Income Tax Scheme? kailan ba na simple ang income tax?

Land Use Bill! yan ang gusto ko. pera at lupa!

Residential Free Patent Bill! <--- ewan ko to! ano to?

OECD Tax Compliance Amendments <--- eto din! ano to?

pasensya na po!

<o)))><

I don't know what it is with the customs broker act that the PCCI wants to lobby for at the senate and house of reps. What I know is that there is a lot of corruption at the Dept of Customs and customs brokers are usually people that "facilitate" the clearing of of goods through Customs. In other words, dyan nangyayari ang mga mahiwagang panyayari.

The PCCI is a commerce fraternity. They do not necessarily represent the manufacturing sector of the Philippines. Now if what they want to do is to make it easier for them to bring goods manufactured in another country like Bangkok, eh kawawa namang ang mga Phil manufacturers. Parang economic sabotage din yan.

Dapat nilang talakayin eh ang pag-stimulate ng local manufacturing capabilities natin.

Ms Demi Noor wrote:
I'm not sure din po sa details on the custom brokers act, but I know more about that corruption thing, businessmen do make friends with those in the position so pag meron contrabandos, lusot, or yon hindi na dadaan sa whatever procedure one container has to undergo. Example nito ay like one container that may contain spare parts and the likes or even used clothings, but declared HOUSEHOLD and PERSONAL EFFECTS, Lusot yan if meron kapit ang company na nasa taas na position sa Customs, it means din sali sa PAYROLL ng company monthly! I have to add, they (some custom officials) themselves inform some companies when there's a schedule inspection so at least matago nila ang products or some units that are not legal."(