Congress must tread carefully on cutting K-12 funding for free tuition law — CHED chair

 Entertainment
Oct 072017
 

MANILA, Sept 28 (Mabuhay) –Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Patricia Licuanan said on Wednesday that Congress must take care in carving the K-12 program to provide funding for Republic Act No. 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

In a press conference, Licuanan said, “Congress has to proceed really carefully here because this is a very good thing to fund and we all want it funded. But to take from another important program and then put it there, in the end, students also will suffer.”

CHED’s own K-12 budget to upgrade the skills of primary, secondary, and tertiary schoolteachers was already cut, though Licuanan is unsure if the amount was reallocated to the free tuition program.

“There are cuts also in CHED from the K-12 budget. I don’t know if that was justified by the free tuition but that is very important. The K-12 budget is used in this particular case for faculty to get higher credentials so that the quality of education may also improve,” she said.

About P30 million was stripped from the Department of Education’s school building program, particularly from unimplemented projects, and moved to the P40 billion fund the House appropriated from various agencies for the free tuition law.

“That is the approach. Tthey look at what departments have excess funds and that’s where we’re getting the money,” Licuanan said.

At least P51.4 billion is required to implement the free tuition law in state universities and colleges: P22.6 billion will be allocated to free tuition and other school fees, P7 billion for tech-voc education, P21.6 billion for tertiary education subsidy, P0.5 billion for the student loan program, and P100 million for administrative costs.

“We will probably ask P40 billion from Congress but we have to probably ask Senate for additional. If the bicam does not approve additional funds, then we may have to adjust the internal budget for the implementation,” she said on Wednesday.(MNS)

Giving mothers a break

 Economy
Jul 302017
 

After almost 20 years, the government has finally recognized the need to enhance the current maternity leave benefits for women. In March, the Senate approved Senate Bill No. 1305 or the Expanded Maternity Leave Law of 2017 on its third and final reading. Under the bill, female employees in both government service and in the private sector can go on maternity leave for 120 days, regardless of mode of delivery. Moreover, an employee who qualifies as a solo parent under Republic Act No. 8972, is entitled to a maternity leave of 150 days.

VAT on importing from within

 Economy
Jun 212017
 

If a buyer in the Philippines purchases goods from a Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) registered enterprise, is the purchase subject to value-added tax (VAT)? Under Section 107 of the Tax Code in relation to Section 26 of Republic Act No. 7916 (PEZA Law), sale of goods by a PEZA-registered enterprise to a buyer in the Philippines (i.e., domestic sales) is considered a “technical importation,” i.e. the buyer is treated as the importer and the sale shall be charged the corresponding VAT. The rationale for this tax treatment is that an ecozone is considered a separate customs territory which creates a legal fiction that it is a foreign territory, even though located within the Philippines. In essence, purchases from an ecozone are likened to purchases made from abroad. Thus, the sale is treated as a technical importation.

Simpler tax administration that matters to all taxpayers

 Economy
Apr 172017
 

The tax season is over and almost all taxpayers who were able to file within the deadline yesterday, April 17, are now wondering what’s next in the pipeline of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in so far as tax reforms are concerned. A welcome development has come in the BIR’s pursuit of a simplified tax administration system. On April 5, the BIR issued a memorandum for business taxpayers claiming income tax exemption under the Barangay Micro-Business Enterprise (BMBE) Act of 2002 (Republic Act No. 9178). Under the law, all BMBEs are exempt from income tax for income arising from the operation of the enterprise.’

Revisiting the changes in SRC Rules: A year since

 Economy
Sep 182016
 

(First of two parts) On Aug. 4, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released the 2015 Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 8799, otherwise known as the Securities Regulation Code (SRC). This came after various stakeholder inputs from as early as 2011, when the proposed amendments were made open to public comment. The 2015 IRR was published on Oct. 25, 2015, and took effect 15 days later, on Nov. 9, 2015. It modified the 2003 IRR with the introduction of significant changes geared towards transparency in dealing with brokers, dealer and securities ownership, as well as relaxing the rules to give investors easier access to capital.

A parting gift: The DICT Law

 Economy
Jun 152016
 

With days counting away in his term, outgoing President Benigno S. C. Aquino III recently signed into law Republic Act No. 10844 creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). As a necessary effect, all operating units of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) with functions and responsibilities dealing with communications will be transferred to the newly-created DICT. Henceforth, the DoTC will be renamed as the Department of Transportation.

Expanding tax benefits for PWDs

 Economy
Jun 082016
 

Based on a 2010 census, about 1,443,000 or 1.57% of the total population in the Philippines are disabled. Republic Act No. 7277, or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, defined persons with disability or PWDs as “those suffering from restriction of different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.” In an effort to achieve social equalization, the government is constantly pursuing measures to improve the quality of life of every Filipino in different sectors, particularly the PWDs.

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