House committee sees approval of new mining fiscal regime this week

A HOUSE committee has set a target of approving this week a measure overhauling the mining fiscal regime, the committee’s chairman said.

“We will approve on Wednesday,” Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda of the House ways and means committee said in a Viber chat. 

The Senate has yet to file a mining fiscal regime bill, a priority measure listed in President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s State of the Nation Address.

The mining industry has said it supports the measure, House Bill No. 373, written by Mr. Salceda, which will impose a margin-based royalty and windfall profits tax, which it described as less burdensome to miners.

Chamber of Mines of the Philippines Vice Chairman Gerard H. Brimo said such a tax structure would provide the government “with a progressively larger share in mining revenue when commodity prices go up and give a break to the industry when prices are low.”

The bill proposes a margin-based royalty on large-scale miners outside of mineral reservations. It also proposes a windfall profits tax that is likewise based on margins.

“This is the same tax structure that applies in the two largest copper producing countries in the world, Chile and Peru, who have been able to attract substantial foreign investment to grow their industries. Canada also applies an income-based royalty although the royalty rate does not change,” he said.

Other priority tax bills are the single-use plastics tax and the taxation of digital services, which the House approved last year. The panel approved the proposed motor vehicle users’ charge last week. 

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who heads the Senate ways and means committee, told reporters last week that the ease of paying taxes bill, single-use plastics tax, and MVUC measure are Senate priorities. The digital services tax, on the other hand, is still in committee for deliberation.

Measures seeking to curb smuggling are also a priority.

“We are prioritizing the proposed bills on amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act. We have set the TWG (technical working group) deliberations for this week,” House agriculture and food committee and Quezon Rep. Wilfrido Mark M. Enverga said in a Viber message. 

The House passed the proposed anti-financial account scamming act in March, while a similar measure is pending at a Senate committee.

Legislators are considering reforms to the pension system for military and uniformed personnel (MUP) by gradually making members contribute more to their own retirement packages while tapping government savings for its share of the pension contribution.

Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan S. Fernandez, who chairs the House public order and safety committee, said the committee is waiting for the House defense panel, the lead committee, to conduct hearings on the bill. 

“I’m quite confident that the savings will not be enough to augment the backlog,” he said via Viber. “At least a hundred billion is needed for 2024 and without reforms that the executive will submit to us for consideration then we might aggravate the already fragile situation of our men in uniform.”

The MUP pension reform bill is also being deliberated at committee level in the Senate.

Government auditors recently called on the Armed Forces of the Philippines to update its Pension Management Information System (PenMIS), following overpayments worth P17.01 million and underpayments of P2.30 million last year.

“Discrepancies in the list of pensioners from the PenMIS resulted in overpayment and underpayment of pensioners and adversely affected the accuracy and reliability of payrolls,” the Commission on Audit said in an audit report make available on July 28. 

Discussions on amending the procurement law have been ongoing since May 18, House revision of laws committee secretary Jean Celzo-Dapula said via Viber.

She said that salient points raised during TWG deliberations are setting the threshold amount on projects in a district and readiness of other procuring entities or bidders to use electronic platforms.

“We hope to approve (the bill) in committee within the year,” she said.

The office of Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara, who chairs the chamber’s finance committee, said its next hearings will involve the Tatak Pinoy bill this week. A similar measure is still pending in committee at the House.

Meanwhile, the measure calling for the automatic income reclassification of local government units, which the House approved in March, is set for second-reading approval in the Senate.

Other Marcos priority bills are amendments to the Fisheries and Cooperative codes, the blue economy development bill, and the proposed Philippine Immigration Act, which are all still in committee.

Mr. Marcos has also called for the creation of a new auditing code. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz