Economic managers, House to meet over Bayanihan 3 issues (Sabong News)

THE leadership of the House of Representatives and the President’s economic team will meet anew on Wednesday to iron out the differences in the proposed Bayanihan to Arise As One Act or the Bayanihan 3. House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda on Monday said they will tackle both the spending side and the revenue side of the proposal. “We will have to meet at some figure, but the responsibility of Congress is to present the needs of the people first, and then adjust our response based on the availability of new or existing funding,” Salceda said. “My advice to both my colleagues in the House and my counterparts in the economic team is that, while we must guard our deficit levels, we should not fixate on existing fiscal limitations. How we pay for Bayanihan 3 can be annuitized to some number of years, through gaming taxes on POGOs and e-sabong, for example,” he added. Bayanihan 3, which now stands at P405.6 billion, is pending before the House Committee on Appropriations. “Congress proposes to finance the package using new revenue streams. We did take into account that whatever existing sources there are must have already been used for the regular budget. In fact, this is the premise of the proposed revenue sources in the package,” he said. “We can get future revenue flows whose present value equivalent meets the need for Bayanihan 3. This is the strategy of the USD 2.2 trillion infrastructure plan of the Biden administration. They plan to pay for it with new revenues and closing tax loopholes, over time. We can certainly learn from that approach,” he added. Last week, Salceda’s committee approved the revenue provision in Section 34 of the Bayanihan 3 substitute bill which states that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would be authorized to make additional direct provisional advances with or without interest to the National Government. These direct advances would be used to finance expenditures which are authorized by law, to address and respond to the Covid-19 situation in the country. Citing his own computation, Salceda said P294.8 billion will be sourced from provisional advances from the BSP. Also, he said another P78 billion will be derived from the increased remittance of GOCC dividends. Section 35 of the bill would mandate some government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) recommended by the Joint Executive-Legislative Bayanihan Council, to increase their dividend remittances to help fund the appropriations of the proposed measure. Salceda said other sources of revenue include the capital withdrawal from “obese” GOCCs, e-sabong and POGO taxes. Under the substitute Bayanihan bill, P216 billion will be allocated for the implementation of a cash subsidy program of P1,000 for every Filipino in two tranches. Also, around P12 billion shall be appropriated for assistance for households in crisis situations under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). A P12-billion standby fund shall be appropriated for phase 2 and P6 billion standby fund for phase 3 of the AICS program. It seeks to provide P5,000 to P10,000 per Covid pandemic affected household. The Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program shall be continued and expanded with a direct funding of P8 billion, and standby funds worth P8 billion for phase 2 and P4 billion for phase 3 to assist micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). To provide temporary employment to displaced workers, around P10 billion shall be appropriated for the implementation of the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (Tupad), Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), and Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) Program, while P10 billion shall be appropriated as standby funds for phase 2 and P5 billion for phase 3. Assistance to the agri-fishery sector will receive a total of P30 billion worth of standby funds to finance programs and interventions toward food security and farmer income security and welfare. The bill also allocates P3 billion for medical assistance for indigent patients, and standby funds worth P3 billion each for phases 2 and 3.