Travel tax abolition bill hurdles House
House Bill No. 8464, which proposes to do away with the travel tax, has been approved on third and final reading in the lower chamber, with 257 lawmakers voting in favor, one opposed and one abstaining.
“The travel tax belongs to a different era, when flying was mostly seen as a privilege for an opulent few,” House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, one of the proponents of the bill, said in a statement after HB 8464 was approved during the plenary session on Monday.
“The travel tax was created in a very different economic context. Today, it has become an added cost that restricts mobility and weighs heavily on ordinary Filipinos who simply want to travel for work, family or opportunity,” he added.
The bill seeks to repeal the travel tax imposed under Presidential Decree No. 1183 and related provisions of the Tourism Act of 2009.
Unnecessary burden
It was earlier declared as one of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council’s 21 priority measures after President Marcos expressed his support for the move. According to Mr. Marcos, many Filipinos travel not only for leisure but also for work and emergency situations, making the tax an unnecessary burden.
Romblon Rep. Eleandro Jesus “Budoy” Madrona, chair of the House tourism committee and one of the bill’s sponsors, said the move was also in line with the ASEAN Tourism Agreement, of which the country is a signatory.
“In the span of almost two decades after its enactment, the Philippines became a signatory to the ASEAN Tourism Agreement, which sought the removal of travel tax among member states to facilitate travel, which consequently renders the country as a regional outlier after most of the member states have eliminated travel-related levies,” Madrona said in a statement.
The mandatory tax charges P1,620 from those flying in economy class and P2,700 for those in business and first class. Around P8 billion a year is generated from the tax, with half of the revenues going to the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority which is responsible for developing and managing tourism infrastructure projects and Tourism Enterprise Zones. Forty percent goes to the Commission on Higher Education, while the remaining 10 percent is for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
Continued funding
To ensure that the functions of the three government agencies would not suffer, HB 8464 provides continued funding through the General Appropriations Act.
In the Senate, counterpart bills have been filed by Senators Francis Pangilinan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joel Villanueva and Erwin Tulfo although these have yet to be taken up in the plenary.
Pangilinan’s Senate Bill No. 1843, also known as “An Act Abolishing the Travel Tax,” called the levy an “economic burden” on Filipinos who have the right to visit other countries, regardless of status, as stated under the 1987 Constitution.
“By lowering the cost of international travel, we expect to stimulate passenger volume, increase spending on transport, accommodation, food and services, and generate positive spillovers across the economy,” he said.
