Innovative solutions to decades-old problem of education and health care

Under his Senate Bill 2402, Gordon would have telecommunication firms taxed 20 percent of their income from text messages, with the taxes amounting to billions of pesos annually to be spent specifically on education and health.

Anticipating protests from the public, Gordon said his proposal should not raise the cost of a text message currently at P1 per text message since ideally, telecommunication firms would only part with a portion of their profits.

Gordon said his proposal did not intend to pass on any new tax to the more than 60 million mobile phone subscribers.

"While I share his frustration over the government's inefficient tax administration and collection system, a careful reading of my proposal shows that there is no tax intended to be imposed and definitely, the brunt of it would not to be passed on mobile phone subscribers," said Gordon.

"We want to move our country in the right direction, and we don't want to go back to policies that have failed us in the past as a nation and as a people. We are finding innovative solutions to decades-old problems of education and health care services," he added.

He estimated that 400 million text messages are sent each day in the country, with each text message costing P1.


Gordon for, Lacson against text tax
By Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:30:00 09/30/2008
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080930-163825/
Gordon-for-Lacson-against-text-tax