Revival of SMS Tax Proposal Attempted While Attention on Typhoon Relief Efforts
By Rico, 7:07 am Fri Oct 16 2009 - News - 2 Opinions
But don’t take our word for it! Here’s what Victor Villanueva wrote as part of his article entitled “Abusing the people’s tragedy “.
A few days ago, I attended a Congress committee hearing on what we all thought to be was a junked proposal to tax SMS messages. Without as much attention as the previous hearings, and with the public focused largely on the relief operations, pro-tax congressmen actually revived the proposal, and even had the gall to use the calamity to justify the additional tax. Other congressmen who opposed the tax tried to junk it altogether to no avail. When more and more observers and media were coming in the meeting, the leadership suddenly decided to suspend the hearing and re-convene in executive session some other time, without all the observers and the media, and the other congressmen who weren’t members of the committee.
What do you think of the text tax? Personally, I don’t see the point. While the revenue potential is huge (you can actually see the peso signs glittering on the proponents’ eyes; how will this revenue be used?), why make it more expensive for Juan dela Cruz to text?
Nothing is easier or more affordable in the Philippines than sending texts to loved ones. Why take away what’s most likely the only thing working for most of our impoverished countrymen? The government already imposes a 12 percent value added tax on mobile services anyway, right?
Rygel
5:05 pm Fri Oct 16 2009
they see another golden opportunity for their pockets.
jpbl1976
10:10 pm Sun Oct 18 2009
This will die in the Senate; with plenty of the louder voices seeking reelection, it’s unlikely they’ll risk the negative public backlash this will generate.
The thing with this is that I’m almost certain someone already “awarded” the contract for the meters that were supposed to be used for the new tax — and in all likelihood, the people supporting this already got paid so unless they want another scandal (a la ZTE), they have to cough-up the legislation.
To be fair, even the solons supporting it are probably aware that it’s ridiculous — it’s basically double taxation — but they’ll probably run foul of whichever shady characters sold them the meters.
Of course, this being the Philippines, I’m probably being too generous. Some of our solons really ARE that stupid.