Mike De La Rama | Philippine News Agency: Albay provincial board member Ireneo Sales has lauded the Senate for approving on final reading a bill that exempts minimum wage earners from paying tax.
Sales said the approval of tax exemption is timely as it will increase the take home pay of minimum wage earners. "This will enable them to cope with the increasing prices of commodities, tuition fees and fare," he said.
"It is appropriate to provide tax relief for minimum wage earners due to the unprecedented price hike and we are expecting continuous increase in basic commodities including agricultural products by next month," Sales said.
According to him, this is the reason the provincial legislative body has decided to pass an ordinance providing 10-percent wage increase to Albay employees.
"As much as possible we wanted to give a much higher salary increase specially for those rank in file employees but our increase depends upon the savings of the provincial government," Sales also explained.
The provincial official filed a resolution urging the bicameral conference committee to ratify the proposed measure before Congress adjourns next month. "We are optimistic that this bill would be approved by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and be implemented in July, this year," he said.
Sales, chairman of the committee on energy, is also set to file a separate resolution expressing full support to the proposal pending in the House of Representatives seeking to restore the exemption from VAT of electric cooperatives and marginal power end users.
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