Teves welcomes move to tax telcos' text revenues

MANILA, Philippines – Finance Secretary Margarito Teves on Monday welcomed the proposal to collect part of telecommunications companies' text messaging revenues and allot it for health and education, saying the government needs more funds for social services. "If the new taxes can generate revenues, we would appreciate it," Teves said in an interview with reporters after the House subcommittee hearing on the proposed 2009 budget of the Department of Finance (DOF). Teves said there is a particular need for additional taxes to ensure that the Philippine economy will not be thoroughly affected by the meltdown of the United States economy. He added, however, that the decision to channel part of text messaging revenues to health and education lies in the hands of Congress, adding that they are also waiting for Congress action on measures on fiscal incentives and the restructuring of the sin tax system. Teves' statements were in reaction to Senator Richard Gordon's Senate Bill 2402, which proposes that half the cost of every text message sent be allocated to a special fund that would address the country's "ballooning backlogs" in education and health infrastructures. "When you think about it, 50 cents of every peso you pay every time you send a text message will ensure a world-class education system that is at par with other developing nations. We have more to gain from this than to lose," Gordon said in a statement last Wednesday. House Speaker Prospero Nograles recently backed Gordon's move, saying the proposal is a good move to encourage people to "text for a cause." "There will be no additional cost on texting. Based on our estimates, our telcos still rake in a lot a profit at a cost of 50 centavos per text. So instead cutting down on the cost of texting, telcos should allocate at least 20 percent of their profit to a trust fund for education and health care. This way, our texters will be texting for a worthy cause," Nograles said in a statement on Monday. Nograles also proposed the creation of a "board" composed of telecommunications heads and the secretaries of the Health and Education department that will manage the "exclusive trust fund" to ensure that it will be spent only on the upgrading of schools, hospitals, and health centers nationwide. In his statement on Sunday, Nograles said collecting P20 centavos per text message will earn the Health and Education departments no less than P340 million per day based on estimates that l.7 to 1.9 billion text messages are sent every day in the country. - GMANews.TV