OUR COUNTRY is in crisis: more than 50% of the population lives below
the poverty line; 3 out of 10 children under age 5 are malnourished;
3 out of 10 Filipinos do not have access to health services and sanitation;
and 1 of every 10 Filipinos (in the labor force) is jobless.
The National Government's budget deficit for 2002 was some P210B.
In its effort to bolster the economy and cover the deficit, it has
declared to start charging Value Added Taxes (VAT) on artists and
professionals.
We, artists and professionals, are not spared from the adverse effects
of the country's economic conditions. The additional 10% VAT
leveled on us will worsen rather than ease the economic crisis that
now confronts our country. Thus we are spurred to form the Network
Opposed to VAT (NO VAT).
We are committed to our responsibility of contributing our talents
and dutifully paying our income taxes to help uplift the nation's
economic situation. However, the additional 10% VAT to be imposed
on us will actually burden the end consumers, as professional fees
charged will be in consideration of this added expense. The
burden on individual professional taxpayers will be the complicated
accounting procedures, and the erosion of our diminishing earning
capacity and opportunity. Moreover, it can instill the commercialization
of our professions, instead of strengthen its social orientation.
We believe that the 10% VAT is not an imperative step to be able
to fill the gap of the budget deficit and save the nation from eventual
disaster.
The government should look into other ways and other sources of revenues,
like:
* less tax exemptions, preferential treatment, tax-free importation,
and tax credits to the big local and foreign corporations; (The Finance
Department itself has said that it lost some P187 billion in revenues
[in 2001] because of tax exemptions. While former BIR Commissioner
Rene G. Bañez last year stated that the poor tax take is due
to the extravagant use of tax incentives to attract foreign businesses.)
* more stringent and decisive measures to curb graft and corruption;
(Data shows that at least 20% of the annual national budget is lost
due to corruption.)
* more caution and selectivity in guaranteeing loans by private interest
groups.
(Government guaranteed loans, many of which did not actually benefit
the people, constitute a huge portion of the country's P2.7 trillion
debt stock. Debt servicing in turn eats up more than 40% of the national
budget.)
We therefore urge our economic managers to be more prudent in managing
the people's resources, consider the performance of the over-all economy,
and analyze the situation of the sectors involved with a sensitized
attitude before compelling the imposition of the VAT on professionals.
We call on our government—our President, Senators, and Representatives—to
take steps to maintain the VAT exemptions on artists and other professionals,
immediately enact a law that will permanently exclude artists and
other professionals from VAT, as well as review the injustice of the
whole VAT system.
Signed 20 January 2003:
Girlie Rodis, for PAMI
Richard Gomez, for KAPP
Carlitos Siguion Reyna, for DGPI
Julie L. Po, for Concerned Artists of the Philippines
Dr Jojo Carabeo, for Health Alliance for Democracy
Dr Jojo Sabile, for Philippine Medical Association
Mitch Valdes, for OPM
Celeste Legaspi, for Philstage
Cito Beltran, Broadcast Media
Joel Lamangan, Film Director
Joey Reyes, Film Director
(partial list only)
---------------
