Philippine business groups and foreign chambers of commerce in the Philippines strongly support the agenda of the Philippine government to increase national competitiveness and the ease of doing business through sound economic policy reforms, as found in the Philippine Development Plan of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and President Duterte’s Ten Point Socioeconomic Agenda.
Makati Business Club supports Sec. Carlos G. Dominguez’s call to lift bank secrecy and strengthen anti-money laundering laws. We call on Congress to lift secrecy for both private and public persons so the country can comply with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) network. Failure to comply by Oct 2020 will result in the country being subjected to restrictions and additional costs that will hit legitimate transactions including the remittances of our OFW workers. More importantly, lifting of the bank secrecy laws will enable the country to better address public and private corruption and collect proper taxes, resulting in more funds for much-needed public services and infrastructure.
Makati Business Club urges Congress to expeditiously pass the corporate income tax and incentives rationalization legislation that it has been considering for almost two years. We strongly believe in both thrusts. We commend the Administration and Congress for advancing rationalization, which has been under seemingly intractable discussion for two decades. While there remain strong differences of opinion on some key provisions of the final bills that need to be addressed, passing the law will provide long-delayed certainty that will help the Philippines to compete for job-creating investments.
We, the undersigned business and professional organizations, jointly express our support for Senate Bill No. 1357, the Senate version of the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA) which is a core component of the Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program that seeks to make the corporate tax system simpler, fairer, equitable, regionally competitive, and more efficient.
We call on the whole of government — Department of Education (DepEd), Congress, Senate — to continue the Philippines’ participation in the 2021 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).