Salceda says the House of Representatives will not pass the Senate’s CREATE MORE bill

By means of Justine Irish D. Table, Reporter

THE HOUSE of Representatives would not pass the Senate version of the Business Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Revitalizing the Economy (CREATE MORE) bill because it is “too Fby law,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman and Albay Representative Jose Maria Clemente “Joey” S. Salceda.

“The House of Representatives contingent will attempt to resolve the principled differences between the Senate and House versions of the CREATE MORE bill in a bicameral conference committee,” Mr. Salceda shared. Business world in a Viber message.

This comes after Office from the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economy AFgrants (OSAPIEA) chief Frederick D. Go said he hopes the House can pass or at least amend the Senate version of CREATE MORE.

The Senate is expected to pass the CREATE MORE bill on second and third readings next week.

“I will work closely with Malacañang as we have done in the past. We always treat comments from the OSAPIEA with the highest attention and priority. But on these important issues, the House of Representatives contingent will be steadfast,” Mr Salceda said.

The CREATE MORE bill is among the priority legislative measures identified by the Legislative-Executive Advisory Council on Development for adoption before the 19th century.^e The congress ends in June 2025.

Mr. Go said the Senate has so far approved five bills since Congress opened its third and final regular session in July.

“They actually work very hard to get us our priority bills. And so the next bill that comes out of the Senate will hopefully be the CREATE MORE bill,” he said.

“I can assure you that I have been working with them late into the night over the past few days to break this. They say they will try to approve it next Tuesday,” he added.

If the Senate approves the bill on Tuesday, the bicameral conference committee could begin discussions as early as Wednesday, Mr. Go said.

“We hope that the House will pass it or at least agree to it when they go into a bicameral conference committee,” he said on the sidelines of the National Retail Conference and Expo on Thursday.

However, Mr. Salceda said one reason the House of Representatives would not adopt the Senate version is because it does not resolve issues related to the cross-border doctrine.

“Initially, the Senate wanted to abolish separate customs areas altogether, by removing them from the special ecozone laws that established them and by removing the House definition of Separate Customs Areas,” he said.

“However, the Senate ultimately simply abolished the repeal of such special laws, without adopting the position of the House of Representatives that establishes a primary and overarching doctrine on the issue. If we adopt the Senate version unchanged, we will be back to the confusing status quo,” he added.

Mr. Salceda said the House also objects to the Senate version, which would allow duty-free imports of tariff- and value-added petroleum for international carriers.

“We strongly object to this. Such products will not be fuel marked when imported, so the Senate proposal will confuse law enforcement as to the origin of unmarked fuel,” he said.

Finally, he said the manufacturing sector has been asking for the bill to clarify the local registered business tax (RBE).

“In particular, they want the current rates already set by local government units to apply, in case they are lower than the proposed 2% in CREATE MORE,” he said.

“We see merit in this as the purpose of the local RBE tax is to streamline tax collection and not increase rates. Manufacturing tends to be sensitive to taxes based on gross receipts as these have very low single-digit margins,” he added.

In addition to the three reasons, he said the House will also investigate other inconsistencies or ambiguities in the bill that cannot be left to the implementing rules.

“When we implement tax reforms, they are usually by December of the year. Therefore, there is pressure to complete the reform before the new fiscal year begins,” Mr Salceda said.

“We still have a full month of session left, not to mention the four months before that Fiscal year ends. CREATE MORE must remove ambiguities at CREATE. The healing will not be rushed,” he added.