PRESS STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHIZ ESCUDERO

ON THE PROPOSED TAX ON TEXT

I will oppose the proposed five-centavo tax on text if and when a counterpart measure is taken up in the Senate. There is no certainty, however, that it will not be passed on by the chamber.

The proposed tax is obviously a regressive measure and will be an added burden for students, workers, and minimum-wage earners who use the cellphone as an essential tool for communication.

Text messages are already subject to the 12 percent value added tax. Taxing text messages is the easy way out for a government unable to stop its free-spending ways and the diversion of billions of pesos in revenues annually into the pockets of grafters.