President Rodrigo Duterte poses with the Filipino community in New Zealand. King Rodriguez, Presidential Photo.

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte's tax reform program will result in a net gain of P174.2 billion in its first year of implementation, if Congress passes the government's proposal without amendments, the finance department said Wednesday.

Lowering income taxes will result in P127.4 billion in losses, but this will be offset by P301.6 billion from an expanded value added tax base and an adjustment in excise taxes for cars and fuel, the department said in a statement.

The government will use 40 percent of revenues from the reform push for targeted subsidies for the poor, finance undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said.

"We recognize that the tax reform will affect a number of vulnerable people. We are very much committed to protecting the poor, vulnerable, and low income sectors," he said.

The subsidies include cash transfers for the bottom half of the population, fuel subsidies for public transport, higher socialized pensions or cash transfer amounts, rice subsidies for senior citizens and higher PhilHealth coverage for persons with disabilities, he said.