PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday vetoed a bill that would have granted tax exemption to the honoraria, allowances, and other financial benefits of election workers, typically public school teachers.

Marcos made the decision through a letter addressed to the 19th Congress.

House Bill No. 9652 or Senate Bill No. 2520 is known as ‘An Act Exempting from Income Taxation the Honoraria, Allowances, and Other Financial Benefits of Persons Rendering Service During an Election Period’.

In his letter to Congress, Marcos said the proposed measure runs counter to the objective of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program to correct the inequity in the country’s tax system and negate the progressivity of the reforms introduced under RA 10963 or the TRAIN law.

“Moreover, the studies of pertinent government agencies on the revenue loss is too substantial an impact to be foregone,” he said.

The election honoraria and allowances were never subjected to tax until the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections and the 2019 mid-term elections when the Bureau of Internal Revenue imposed a five percent withholding tax.

This year, election honoraria and allowances were subjected to 20 percent withholding tax.

The Department of Finance earlier maintained the proposed tax exemption could be difficult to implement and runs counter to the principles of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law to make the tax system more efficient and equitable.