30
Sep

Is It Right To Impose Tax on Text Messaging in the Philippines?

Author: jps61974

Senator Richard Gordon proposed through Senate Bill 2402 that text messaging should be taxed in the Philippines. As early as now, many Filipinos have expressed dismay over this bill. Interviewed cell phone users are disgusted and complained that this “TEXT TAX” is abusive and unfair to the consumers (in this case, the subscribers).

An excerpt from the Inquirer stated that

Senator Panfilo Lacson has disagreed with Senator Richard Gordon in reviving a proposal to tax text messages.

Under his Senate Bill 2402, Gordon would have telecommunication firms taxed 20 percent of their income from text messages, with the taxes amounting to billions of pesos annually to be spent specifically on education and health.

Anticipating protests from the public, Gordon said his proposal should not raise the cost of a text message currently at P1 per text message since ideally, telecommunication firms would only part with a portion of their profits.

Even so, Lacson protested Gordon’s proposal and insisted that neither consumers nor the telecommunication firms should be further taxed.

If Senate Bill 2402 will be passed into law, the rate of text messaging in the Philippines will become PhP 1.50 per text message. As a cell phone user and texter, I really disagree with the government’s move to impose taxes in texting. I think Senator Gordon’s proposal was based on the possibility that the government can make more money from cell phone users. This new taxation scheme is contrary to the SONA of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which boasted a 50% discount on texting (50 cents per text message) until October 28 (which obvously turned out to be a hoax because it never happened). This strengthens the public’s belief that the Philippine government under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration is bent on making money out of the people instead of protecting the people’s interests. I can only agree.