MANILA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government is eyeing an additional 1 trillion pesos (20.7 billion U.S. dollars) for public investments annually with comprehensive tax reform measures that it has been pushing in Congress, a senior government official said Monday.
Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said if this is achieved, some 10 million Filipinos could be freed from poverty in six years' time and eventually transform the Philippines into a high-income state by 2040.
"To meet President (Rodrigo) Duterte's goal of freeing 10 million Filipinos from the shackles of poverty under his 10-point socioeconomic agenda for inclusive growth, the government needs to reduce the poverty incidence from 26 percent in 2015 to 17 percent when his term ends in 2022," Dominguez said.
"For this administration to do so, it must raise enough funds to accelerate public spending on infrastructure, human capital and social protection for the most vulnerable sectors. To achieve more inclusive growth, higher tax revenues are needed," said Dominguez.
The Department of Finance submitted last month to both chambers of the Congress its proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act in keeping with the Duterte administration's 10-point socioeconomic agenda.
Public investments are estimated to reach 1.273 trillion pesos (26.3 billion U.S. dollars) this year, of which 621 billion pesos (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) will be in infrastructure; 454 billion pesos (9.4 billion U.S. dollars) in education, 128 billion pesos (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) in health, 60 billion pesos (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in social protection, and 10 billion pesos (210 million U.S. dollars) in training, research and development (R&D) and other programs.
Dominguez said the Duterte administration wants public investments to almost double to 2.29 trillion pesos (47.4 billion U.S. dollars) each year.
Hence, it needs an extra 1.017 trillion pesos (20.7 billion U.S. dollars) per year to double public spending on infrastructure, human capital and social protection over the next 24 years till 2040, he said.
