TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Congressman Allen Jesse Mangaoang committed to work for deletion of the section of House Bill 231 (An act revising the Corporate Code of the Philippines) which strikes out the tax exemption privileges of cooperatives contained in RA 9520.
He said that while he is not a member of the House Committee on Cooperatives, he could join its deliberations.
He, however, asked the cooperatives to prepare arguments and data specially an analysis on the effects of taxation on cooperatives so that he could speak convincingly to the committee.
Mangaoang was invited to the forum on how to respond to the bills in both houses of Congress repealing the tax exemptions of cooperatives held by the City Cooperative Development Council (CCDC) on March 21. The forum was attended by representatives of the cooperatives in the city.
The solon informed the cooperatives that their best chance is to have the objectionable provision deleted at the committee level because the moment the bill goes to the plenary, it’s fate is already sealed.
He said that President Rodrigo Duterte and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III are bent on the enactment of the bill because they are eyeing it as a source of funding for the increase in the salaries of teachers, soldiers and policemen among other expenditures.
While he vowed to vote against the bill in the plenary if it covers cooperatives, he said that his vote would be pointless if the bill wins.
Mangaoang asked the cooperative people if they would be willing to haggle in the event that the primary goal which is for the deletion of the provision on cooperatives becomes a tall order. He said that the purpose of a compromise is for the law not to treat cooperatives in the same level as corporations.
During the forum, cooperative leaders including Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative Board Chairman Claudio Bagano and Tabuk Farmers’ Multi-purpose Cooperative CEO and CCDC Chairman Emilio Dulnuan warned that the repeal of the tax exemption of cooperatives could signal the death of the cooperative movement in the country.
Bagano said that under the bill, corporate tax is 32 percent of net income which means that if cooperatives are not excluded from the law, the total amount to be deducted from the net income before this is distributed as dividends and patronage refund is 62 percent it being that cooperatives have 30 percent mandatory deductions.
Dulnuan said that cooperatives are a great help to the poor because without cooperatives, when they need credit, they would have no options but the userers because the banks only lend to the rich.
The CCDC formed a group to prepare all the documents needed by Mangaoang to champion the cause of cooperatives relative to House Bill 231.
During the same forum, City Prosecutor Rainier Sarol said House Bill 231 is anti-poor because it is only through cooperatives that poor people could generate capital.
He said that under the proposed law, earnings of cooperatives will go to the national government which then would give it back to the people in terms of social services, an activity which he said is already being directly performed by cooperatives for their members and communities.**By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
