Finance to seek veto of OFW exemption from stamp tax

The Finance department will ask the President to veto a provision in the proposed Migrant Workers Act that exempts money sent in by Filipino workers abroad from documentary stamp tax, Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves said on Sunday. "Yes," Teves said via text message when asked if his department would seek a veto of the provision. Finance Assistant Secretary Lourdes B. Recente said in an interview late last week that the provision was inserted in the bicameral committee’s version of the bill that now awaits the President’s signature. "This [provision] can result in a P1-billion revenue loss per year," she said. She noted that separate bills proposing the exemption of these remittances — House Bill 5682 and Senate Bill 3255 — are still pending at the committee level in both chambers. The department, she added, was surprised to find out that the provision had been inserted in the bicameral version of the Migrant Workers bill. "We will be submitting our comments and recommendations to the President," Recente said. The Senate and House ratified the measure, which seeks to improve the protection and help received by Filipino workers overseas from the government, last January 18. The measure requires insurance coverage for agency-hired workers, include benefits of $15,000 for accidental death, $10,000 for natural death, and $7,500 for permanent total disability, at no cost to the workers. Moreover, officials who issue work permits that allow Filipinos to work in countries not compliant with international labor standards will be dismissed from service and disqualified from holding appointive public posts for five years. — Louella D. Desiderio, BusinessWorld