Palace: High court to dismiss anti-tax reform pleas

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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – Malacañang is confident the Supreme Court will dismiss all petitions that will be filed against the tax reform bill.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar expects the high court to junk the plea that party-list representatives Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna) and Antonio Tinio (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) plan to file.

“It’s their right as congressmen to file such petition since he represents a certain sector of our society,” Andanar said of Zarate on Sunday. “If he wants to question it, then let the magistrates decide for themselves if his questions are valid.”

According to Tinio and Zarate, the House of Representatives approved the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion, or TRAIN, bill last Tuesday even if there was no quorum on the floor.

“The brazen railroading of this TRAIN wreck on the poor exposes yet again the blatant disregard of the Duterte administration and its supermajority in Congress for even the most minimal standards of democracy,” Tinio said.

“We are studying our options to question and stop this railroaded anti-people tax reform package,” Zarate said. “The bill was approved despite the clear absence of a quorum and the strong objections on the floor.”

Major provisions of the measure include a P6 tax on diesel, cooking gas, kerosene, and bunker fuel for electricity over three years up to 2020, and a hefty increase in the prices of other oil products like gasoline.

The bill would also bring tax relief to millions of taxpayers in the form of lower income tax but taxpayers would have to pay an additional P130 million a year./PN
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