News | Congress Raises Food Income Tax to 20%, Angers Company

Day 495, 07:39 • Published in Philippines Philippines • by Swagger McSwag

MANILA - The 2nd Philippine Congress passed a bill raising the income tax on the food industry to 20% with 22 yes votes and 2 note votes, two days ago, from the previous 1%.

The value added tax (VAT) on food products was lowered to 2% from the previous 5%, while the import tax stayed level at 50%.

The bill was proposed by Palawan Congressman che_gun of the Filipino Progressive Movement (FPM).

"The basic aim of my plan is to protect the FPM's developing businesses, to create money for the government, make the food affordable for the masses and get some more money into developing economy shifting some of the tax burden onto the privately owned businesses and off the regular people," he said.

However the Cascadia Foundation, the Washington, USA-based parent company of local food manufacturer FeedMe Luzon Inc, has not taken kindly to this bill's implementation.

In a letter to The Philippine Times, Cascadia CEO John A. Kelly, wrote: "This is a tax which will impact only ONE company: the one that produces domestically. I double wages for Skill 0 workers, and the government increases tax on those wages by 19%. That's a hell of a way to welcome a foreign investor."

Earlier today, in a FeedMe Luzon interoffice circular, Mr. Kelly was quoted as saying: “The income tax act taxes food industry workers twice as heavily as gift manufacturers and 20 times more heavily than weapons manufacturers. Does Congress want my workers to make weapons instead of bread?”
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