Aklan solon urges gov’t to adopt Duterte’s fiscal consolidation plan to solve economic woes

ILOILO CITY – Aklan Rep. Ted Haresco Jr. has urged the Marcos administration to adopt the fiscal consolidation plan of the Duterte government to solve the country’s economic woes.

“The needs of the times require the government to prioritize seeking additional sources of revenue to pay off national debt and finance its programs. This can be made possible through a fiscal robustness strategy focused on refocusing our current tax laws and revenue collection,” said Haresco in a statement.

Haresco has endorsed the 2022 Fiscal Consolidation and Resource Mobilization Plan of the Department of Finance (DOF) under Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during the Duterte administration.

Haresco, an economist who worked in various national and international organizations, including the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said the plan should be highly reconsidered due to the rise in inflation rate, outstanding national debt, and the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the plan, there should be modification in existing tax laws to be able to ramp up collection revenue.

Haresco said the economic team should look at what has been stipulated in the plan.

It includes the “deferment of the TRAIN personal income tax reduction; modifications to the Value-Added Tax (VAT) system; additional excise taxes; expansion of health and sin taxes; admission charges for casinos and imposing gaming tax on electronic betting; carbon emissions and crypto-currency taxes; and the expansion of tax administration to include social media influencers.”