House approves expanding travel tax exemption

February 4, 2019 Metro BLISTT

The House of Representatives has approved on second reading House Bill 8884 providing travel tax discount to Philippine representatives, senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
The proposed bill is a consolidation of House Bills 3518 and 3557 authored by House Representatives Mark Go of Baguio City and Arlene Arcillas of Laguna, respectively.
The measure includes tax exemption for Philippine representatives to academic conferences abroad, international sports competitions and international beauty pageants as certified by the concerned government agencies, local government units and national pageant organizations.
Furthermore, duly certified senior citizens and PWDs will be granted a 20 percent discount on travel tax imposed on first class and economy class passengers.
“Those who bring honor to the country should be given incentives such as the exemption from paying the travel tax when they travel abroad to join international activities and a 20% discount will also be given to our senior citizen and PWD travelers. This would be a great help to them as this will expand the coverage of exemption and discount under our existing law,” Go said.
The measure specifically amends Section 2 of Presidential Decree 1183 entitled, “Amending and Consolidating the Provisions on Travel Tax of Republic Act No. 1478 as amended and Republic Act No. 6141, Prescribing the Manner of Collection Thereof, Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof and for other purposes” as amended.
“For the year 2017, the country’s total revenue on travel tax reached 3.358 billion and exempting them will not adversely affect our travel tax collection. This small incentive is one way of showing our full support behind our fellow Filipinos who seek glory in the name of our country as well as to our beloved senior citizens and PWDs,” the Baguio solon said.
ABN