MANILA, Philippines - A lower income tax rate for millions of salaried workers should be in place by 2018, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said yesterday as he appealed to his colleagues to act swiftly and favorably on his proposal.

“This tax reform package provides relief to the people by lowering income taxes for the vast majority of Filipinos at the soonest possible time, by 2018 and further by 2019. Delaying this further will delay the benefits to Filipino workers,” he told a news conference yesterday.

He said in addition to millions of minimum wage earners, an additional three million salaried workers “will pay zero income tax based on the adjusted brackets.”

Citing examples, he said a call center employee with an annual income of P273,000 with four dependents would pay an income tax of P1,567 under his Bill 4688, titled Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN).

The same employee pays P9,209 tax under the present law, Salceda said.

He added that a government clerk “with an annual gross income of P231,292, who is currently paying P12,673 in income tax, will be exempt from paying income tax.”

He pointed out that those whose annual income is P13 million would have bigger income taxes to pay than what they are currently paying.

Under the tax reform package proposal of the Department of Finance (DOF), workers with an annual income of P250,000 would be tax-exempt. Like Bill 4688, the DOF proposal would levy bigger taxes on those with millions in earnings.

Salceda proposed that the optional standard deduction system be limited to low-income earners.

“Rich Filipinos, with incomes exceeding P5 million a year, will not be accorded this privilege. Instead, they will have to declare their taxable income in a properly detailed manner,” he said.

Like the DOF, the Albay lawmaker is seeking higher taxes on fuel and cars to “restore equity.”

“At present, a greater majority of fuel, including diesel, is consumed by rich Filipinos. Of 20 million households, the top two million (richest 10 percent) consume almost 60 percent of petroleum products and commuting costs,” he said.

Many of his colleagues, including Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, are against imposing a P6 tax on diesel, cooking gas, kerosene and aviation gas, and increasing the excise tax on gasoline.

Alvarez said revenue agencies should first plug their collection loopholes. Deputy speaker and Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo said the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs lose a combined P600 billion a year to corruption, tax evasion and smuggling. – With Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero