Budget and Taxes

* BusinessWorld  Nov. 7, 2022. --------------- Last week, the big national news was the leap in the country’s inflation rate to 7.7% in October from 6.9% in September, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Meanwhile, the big international news was the high October inflation in Europe, with Germany hitting 10.4%, Italy with 11.9%, and so on. The Philippines now is one of four Asian economies with 14-year high inflation rates, the other three being Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan (see Table 1). Practically all of these countries’ central banks have raised their interest rates to fight high inflation, and inflation is not tamed yet, suggesting the policy is not working or working only mildly. High inflation means that demand is higher than the supply of goods and services. It also means that the money supply is high relative to commodities supply — there is more money chasing fewer commodities. To really fight inflation, non-monetary policy measures must be done. One...

* BusinessWorld  October 31, 2022. With a generally bad economic environment globally, especially in Europe and China, it is important that the Philippines should do more investment promotion roadshows abroad and institute business-friendly domestic policies. The goal is to attract many companies leaving Europe, China, and even the US, while keeping investors that are already here. There were four Philippine Economic Briefings (PEB) done already by the economic team — in Jakarta and Singapore on Sept. 6 and 7, New York City in Sept. 22, and Washington D.C. in Oct. 15. These are good initiatives, with the economic team talking face to face with big potential investors in big financial centers like Singapore and New York. Last week, on Oct. 26, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno met with business leaders of the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) and reiterated the recent market-oriented reforms that are conducive to foreign investors. Then, on O...

* BusinessWorld  October 24, 2022. -------------- Today is a special day for me and I want to thank, appreciate, and mention certain groups and people who have helped me all these years. But before that, I want to mention the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers Meeting (FMM) held on Oct. 19 and 20 in Bangkok, Thailand. This seems to have escaped the coverage of many local business reports. The period 2020-2022 have been years of severe fiscal challenges for practically all countries around the world. Finding new revenues, cutting certain expenditures and subsidies, reducing borrowings while controlling inflation and encouraging fast growth are multiple challenges that responsible governments must address. Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno attended the APEC-FMM and in his panel on “Digitalization for Fiscal Policy and Efficient Tax Collection,” he mentioned that the Philippines’ online filing and payment even improved collections amid the pandemic — a 5% incre...