Briones cites TRAIN’s mitigating effects

Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones called for a change in public mindset towards taxes as she pushed the continuous implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN).

“A complicating factor in discussions on TRAIN is the general attitude of the public on taxes. The mindset is that taxes are invariably tools of oppression,” she said in a press briefing.

Briones stressed Filipinos “must come to terms with the fact that the main source of funds to finance public goods and services is taxes.”

She cited a “fundamental contradiction” in those who oppose taxes but demands increasing provision of public goods and services.

Education, including the provision of free tuition in state universities and colleges and institutions of higher learning managed by local government units, benefits from taxes, especially under the TRAIN.

Briones argued that TRAIN is “pro-poor and pro-development” as it provides relief to majority of income earners, while generating funds for important economic and social services.

The major components of TRAIN include the provision of significant tax relief to individual income earners, the imposition of or increase in the excise taxes of certain goods and the limiting of value added tax exemptions.

“It [TRAIN] also includes targeted social mitigation measures to alleviate the burden that may be experienced by the lower income groups,” she added.

Briones identified the measures as the Unconditional Cash Transfer, fuel vouchers for jeepney drivers, cheaper NFA rice, 10 percent fare and free skills training from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

She said the “inclusion” part pertains to affording most income earners tax relief through the reform of the income tax schedule, as well as in imposing zero tax rate for taxable income up to P250,000 per year – the last benefitting 83 percent of income taxpayers in the country.

“This includes 461,695 Teacher I and Teacher II level teachers. Those with higher taxable income will also receive tax relief, while only the highest income bracket of over P8,000,000.00 will be imposed higher income tax,” Briones added.

“Of the incremental revenue from TRAIN for the next five years, 70 percent will go to infrastructure to address the much needed catch-up with the infrastructure backlog that has constrained the rate of our economic transformation,” she explained.

The remaining 30 percent of the incremental revenue, she added, is intended for social investments.

Briones underscored how education has been a major beneficiary of fiscal expansion in recent years with its continuously increasing budget – from P200.9 billion in 2010 to P704.1 billion in 2018.

She said the funds are used for the salaries of both existing and new teachers, teacher training, learning resources, ICT packages, science and maths equipment, workshops and laboratories and technical-vocational-livelihood tools and equipment.

It is also used to run programs such as school-based feeding for elementary students, alternative learning system program to target out-of-school youth and education service contracting and voucher program to support the education of secondary learners in private schools.

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