By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

SENATE Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto said he expects bills seeking to lower income and corporate taxes to breeze through Congress, even as he predicts rough sailing for counterproposals to offset the revenue gap.

“It will be easy to pass measures lowering taxes for individuals and for corporations,” Recto told reporters when asked how soon Congress is likely to pass the remedial legislation.

However, Recto admitted the same cannot be said for separate measures seen to cover the foregone revenues from lowering income and corporate taxes, such as hiking the value-added tax (VAT).

“It’s more difficult to pass measures to increase taxes,” the senator said.

At the same time, he cautioned Congress against rushing passage of bills increasing taxes, saying lawmakers need to carefully consider such measures.

But Recto allayed concerns that administration allies in Congress plan to railroad the passage of higher VAT rates as one of the countermeasures to cover the revenue loss from lower-income taxes and, instead, push for the reduction of VAT exemptions.

But the Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who will endorse the remedial measures for plenary approval, has yet to confirm the schedule for committee hearings on the pending bills.