Sin products and services are always a source of funds for government to bankroll most of its ambitious public service programs. Little wonder, a senator has proposed to press or squeeze Chinese owned gambling hubs for badly needed funds to bankroll government’s CoVID-19 programs.
Minority senator Franklin Drilon bared his proposition and pointed out how the Bayanihan to Recover as One Law affords the President to realign an estimated 140 billion to spend for the current public health crisis.
Under the proposed scheme, all wagers are to be slapped with a 5 percent franchise tax, replacing the old system of taxing only winning bets. Thus every 1050 peso actual bet is placed on the table for a 1000 peso wager. Or a payout of 950 pesos is made for every 1000 peso wager. The prevailing or current exchange rate applies to all reports on POGO income to protect government from being shortchanged or cheated.
“Kung ito’y hindi tama, pwedeng isara ang POGO at pwede pang may kaso na fraudulent tax return,” Drilon warned.
Money generated from this initiative will augment savings of various agencies this year and revenue sourced from state-run businesses and the Tourism Infrastructure and Export Zone Authority, the senator added.
The latter has some unspent funds in the amount of 15 billion, eighty percent of which or some 12 billion was realigned for Bayanihan 2. The Bayanihan 2 bill is in the home stretch of its ratification race after it passed bicameral conference muster on Thursday.
