Protests
against text tax mount
Texters to Join Anti-SONA Indignation
Rally
President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will deliver her State of the Nation Address (SONA)
this Monday, July 26. The
public expects her to announce her proposed new taxes, the most
controversial of which is the tax on text messages.
Angry texters vow to join the protest in the streets.
BY
EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat
 Enraged
by government plans to tax text messages, a big group of cellphone owners
and other activists will join indignation rallies when Pres. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her State-of-the-Nation Address (or SONA) on
July 26.
Raymond
Palatino, national executive vice chairperson of Anak ng Bayan Youth Party
and one of the convenors of TxtPower, said angry texters will join the
protest on Monday to oppose President Macapagal-Arroyo’s new tax
proposal.
TxtPower,
a broad consumer alliance, will also gather one million signatures
opposing the tax on text messages. Palatino said they will go to schools,
markets, business establishments to unite cellphone users on their
campaign.
“We
are making an appeal to our congressmen and senators to junk bills
imposing tax on text messages,” said Palatino.
The
plan to tax text messaging came up as one of several measures that could
plug a hole in government’s increasing budget deficit.
New
tax measures
Last
week, Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House
committee on appropriations in the last Congress, said the Macapagal-Arroyo
government needs to raise P274 million ($4.89 million, based on an
exchange rate of P56.055 per US dollar) a day or P100 billion ($1.78
billion) a year for the next five years if it intends to prevent the
looming fiscal crisis. The budget deficit is estimated to reach P200
billion ($3.57 billion) this year.
One
of the revenue-generation schemes mulled by President Macapagal-Arroyo is
the imposition of new taxes. Among the tax proposals are a tax on text
messages, increase in the specific tax on petroleum products, and the
adjustment of the excise tax on beer, cigarettes, and other tobacco and
alcohol products.
The
President said that she would impose tax on the profit of
telecommunication companies so as not to burden the consumers. But
TxtPower, a broad alliance of consumers, believes this does not at all
solve the problem.
Palatino
told Bulatlat that telecommunication companies will reject the idea of
losing any amount from their profit.
“They will certainly pass on any levy to the consumers.”
In
2003, Globe Telecommunications, Inc. ranked 4th among the Top
1,000 corporations with a P6.84-billion ($122.02-million) profit while
Smart Communications, Inc. placed 454th with P76.42-million
($1.36-million) profit.
Text
capital
There
are 28 million cellphone subscribers in the country.
One out of four Filipinos uses cellphones. Every day, there are 150
million text messages. The
average cellphone user sends five text messages a day. The Philippines is
said to be the text capital of the world.
Palatino
said the current one-peso cost of text message is already heavily taxed.
“It includes VAT (value-added tax), franchise tax and overseas
communication tax. Besides,
the debate whether a text message should be charged or not has not been
resolved. Many believe it
should be free since it is built-in the GSM system.”
Rizza
Ramirez, national president of the National Union of Students of the
Philippines (NUSP), on the other hand said, “Cellphone is already a
necessity unlike alcohol and cigarettes which are luxury goods. It is used
for personal communication, business purposes, exchange of information,
among others.”
“The
government’s bankruptcy is not our fault,” Ramirez said. “
Mismanagement and corruption are the biggest factors why the government
experiences a huge budget deficit. Why
do we need to suffer from the government’s own doing?”
Instead
of imposing new taxes, Ramirez asked the Arroyo government to fight
corruption, prosecute big tax evaders such as Lucio Tan and cut down on
tax incentives of big foreign corporations.
In
a statement, Sen. Joker Arroyo suggested that Ms. Arroyo should tell the
Bureau of Internal Revenue, Customs and other agencies to increase their
collections by at least 10 percent before submitting tax bills to
Congress.
"Unknown to the public is that a 10-percent increase in our revenue
collection would amount to roughly P70 billion ($1.25 billion), a hefty
sum that could substantially plug over recurring budget deficit. Malacañang’s
new tax proposals will not amount to raising P70 billion ($1.25
billion)," he said.
The senator said, "It would be sheer idiocy for Congress to enact new
tax laws when the BIR and Customs would be unable to enforce them
efficiently.” Bulatlat
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