Francis Escudero Rejects VAT increase

From Manila Bulletin

Two senators sympathetic to the incoming Aquino administration rejected Wednesday's calls by the Department of Finance (DoF) for an increase by three percent of the current 12 percent value-added tax (VAT) to strengthen the country's economic base and address the ballooning budget deficit.

Independent Sen. Francis Chiz Escudero, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee and Sen. Francis Kiko Pangilinan, who belongs to the Liberal Party (LP) of president-apparent Sen. Benigno Simeon Noynoy Aquino III, strongly suggested instead that the incoming Aquino administration focus on minimizing or stopping graft and corruption.

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