TUCP demands tax breaks for workers

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said on Friday said it high time for government to help workers cope with the rising prices of basic commodities and cost of basic services by giving tax breaks.

The TUCP has presented the proposal during the pre-labor day breakfast dialogue with labor groups on April 29. The proposal seeks to enhance the fringe de minimis tax benefits as a way for executive government to help workers cope with soaring prices of basic commodities and cost of services.

The group still awaits for feedback from President Benigno Aquino III.

“It’s been more than a month since this tax break proposal was shown with the President (Aquino) and there has been no response from him since then. His executive action on this one will put more disposable income into workers’ pocket and improve their purchasing power in light of inflation,”Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), said.

TUCP and its 48 other labor organizations under the coalition called Nagkaisa recommended during the dialogue with Aquino to revise the current version of the de minimis benefits enjoyed by thousands of workers to improve the take home pay of workers.

Not subject to any tax, the de minimis benefits are facilities or privileges given or offered by an employer to its employees as a means of encouraging productivity in the workforce. It also promotes company goodwill and appreciation to its employees.

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Seno said the among the proposals of the group is to revise the monetized unused vacation leave credits from the current 10 days to 15 days, retain the monetized value of vacation and sick leave credits paid to government officials and employees, and to raise medical cash allowance to dependents from P750 to P1,500 per employee per month.

He added that TUCP and Nagkaisa are also pushing for Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares to stop taxing the minimum wage negotiated out of the collective bargaining agreement.

“We want BIR to impose tax only on the incremental amount and not the entire amount itself,” Seno said.

The TUCP is supporting other tax relief measures pending at the Senate and the House of Representatives aimed at lowering income tax rate from 32 percent to 15 percent by 2015 and from 15 per cent to 13 percent by 2016 and from 13 percent to 10 percent by 2017. - Dennis Carcamo Philstar