we are already heavily taxed… the government should practice good financial planning and cut down unnecessary costs and pilferage to be able to generate the needed funds.

the intentions do have its merits, that of specifically allocating the “proceeds” to education and health. but don’t we have budget allocations for these already? where did these funds go? and now 36B for it? this is a money-making scheme of the government to aid corruption further. no way!

The government should stop coming up with more and more taxes. Instead it should train its guns on graft and corruption so that public funds don’t get wasted and find their way to the pockets and bank accounts of government officials.

Text should be free. How do you tax something that’s free?

ang income tax yata ngayon ng corporations ay 30% samantala sa individuals 32% sa highest bracket. so, ok lang sa akin ang text tax, huwag lang i-pass on. at gaya ng sabi nyo, ilagay sa dapat paglagyan ng buo, fight graft & corruption, etc…

I say telco’s are really greedy, but that’s no match to politicians who are even greedier.

I’ve heard the $1.9B loan from World Bank was also approved? now think about that amount, where will that amount go? to their personal accounts, mistresses and wife’s accounts, and to their mansions outside of pnas ofcourse, where else. back to topic

Now, regarding the tax, they are claiming that the telco’s are netting billions in profits, hence the reason for tax, true the price of single text is even less than 5c not 25c as what they claimed, yet telco’s are having difficulties! why? because those rebels are asking for millions else they’ll bomb and destroy the cell sites. only boils back to ‘peace and order’. If our soldiers and military men, are doing their job there will be symbiotic effect for all. Profit for all, lots of businessmen coming in, then no more will be hungry, then no more rebels.

IMO, don’t tax txt msging, just develop ‘peace and order’ and stop building all of your mansions outside, leave all those mistresses and be a good example to those who you’ve sworn to lead.

my apologies for the long post.

We don’t need another tax scheme. We need to cut the graft and corruption first because that’s our nation’s problem.

if you just read the condition set forth in order to approve this bill, the government actually will only approve if the telcos will not pass on the tax burden to consumers. meaning the telcos will have to pay for these taxes. the proceeds will go to a good cause if done right. how can we be, as consumers, oppose to that? we’re not going to pay for it. the article above is misleading. are we protecting the interest of the telcos or the people?

i believe this bill is timely and appropriate if done right. the telco companies has been very powerful and have consistently been able to ward off calls from the government and the people to lower down the rates of text messages and calls. it’s time to show the telcos that they are not the ones who set the policy but should follow it and not be too greedy in their profits. there is a circulating notion that SMART sets the standards and not NTC because it has been the most dominant player. this telco companies are getting richer and richer but has not shown any consideration to the call of the people. for instance they have refused also to extend the validity period of prepaid cards to international levels. this is a clear indication of their power to lobby and should tell us something about their behavior. it’s time to show them how greed can have no place in our society. let’s just not outright reject this bill and see whether there it can work for us or not. let’s not protect the telcos for bad behavior.

then, if in the end the bill will just pass on the burden of paying the taxes to us i will not hesitate to take up the cause to shoot it down.

This is just another legislation from corrupt legislators whose gotten rich from the people’s taxes. Obviously, these guys can afford not to use sms messaging because for them - voice call is much better- besides they can easily afford it, at our expense!

it is a regressive tax which means that it can be passed on..text is the cheapest form of communication why tax it?

Why do we have to pay tax anyway? EXPLAIN! Don’t tell me para may pambayad ng utang ang ‘Pinas. ‘Di ‘nyo na nga kami binigyan ng holiday nung Sept. 7 eh kahit na kami ang isa sa mga industries na pinakamalaki ang tax na kinakaltas. EXPLAIN!

What is corruption, and why does it happen? It happens when government officials have power over the free choice of people to make their own business and personal decisions. To put it more simply, getting politicians more involved in business will not prevent corruption i.e. the entanglement of politics and business. The more the government ‘regulates’ business, the more corruption you see. The more economic freedom a country has, the richer the country becomes. These simple facts have been obscured in the past few decades in America, and they have not been properly conceptualized in the rest of the world, but they remain true.

In general, I think there should only be one kind of tax, instead of a thousand little ones, so that the people know just how much of their money is being taken (and some of it wasted). This way, also, the citizens avoid double and triple taxation on the same money.

My two cents.

The scheme proposed by the congressmen involved is plain stupid.

This will totally kill the “unlimited” promos of the Telcos because there is no way to distinguish a regular text message to a bucket promo message.

If this is to be passed, all SMS will be charged as P1 even if the 5 cents “tax” are shouldered by the telco’s. Hence,No more unlimited promos for everyone.

The measure is “anti-poor”.

If you look at it closely, this is just another scheme by malacanangs henchmen/spin doctors to divert the attention of the public to their evil deeds.

How?
When the ZTE scandal broke loose, these “spinners” fabricated stories about the high price of electricity which turned everyones ire on Meralco. This “spin” event eventually made the public forget about Jun Lozada and indirectly forced the Lopez Clan to divest its shares in their company.

They have been doing this since, and people should not be easily be played by this nonsense. The intention may be noble by the real reason behind the moves are downright disgusting.

Stupid schemes from stupid congressmen should be voted out of congress next year. It’s all in our hands.

I’m in favor of this tax scheme provided that the collected money will really go to the needs of the country and not to corrupt government officials.

The government should address corruption in the first place.

corruption is good but it worst…the corruption begins from the president,first gentlement.and the barangay capt.

really the government would always find ways to get something from its people or correctly to say that all the corrupt officials of the government. Ibalik nyo naman sa amin ang mga taxes na yan…di namin maramdaman! Lahat na lang ba dapat ipasa sa mahihirap ang lahat ng ibubulsa ninyo! Mag-isip na sana ang mamamayan na huwag payagan ang mga ninanais ng mga “corrupt” officials na ito! Sobra na! Tama na! - a concerned citizen

a case of strangling the goose that lay the golden egg.

How does this alter/change unlimited text schemes? Weird.

These politicians do not know the impact of the proposed tax on SMS. They don’t have any knowledge either of the technology and the expenses behind it. Bucket promos entail high operational expenses on the telco part. It is absurd to think that telcos merely gain billions of pesos without high operational expenses. Therefore, taxing SMS will deduct a very large allocation of operational budget for the operator. telcos will have no other choice but to reduce their OPEX. Which means no more bucket promos. No more happy people.

Can’t the government think of anything beneficial anymore, for the people they are supposedly meant to serve? it seems like we, the people, have become the slaves of our masters “the government”…funny, in a sad way…

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind paying this additional tax IF I was sure that my money won’t be funneled into yet another set of politicans’ pockets. I believe that before these idiots think of another way to get money from the people for “charitable purposes”, they should first look at the process and make sure that endless corruption won’t take even a cent of this money! Geez! If they can limit the corruption in the government, I doubt we’ll need to resort to this kind of taxing.

To these law makers: Show us first that the country will indeed benefit from this by showing us that you are also making progress in limiting, if not abolishing corruption!

I am so tired of putting up with so much $h!t at work to make money only to have some swine in public office take it! Ang laki-laki ng tax na binabayaran ko, tapos puro kahihiyan idinudulot ng mga leaders natin! Pweh.

I am very much in favor of the tax if it will eliminate unlimited texting. Unlimited texting is the cause of text spam, and while the cellphone companies claim they do not have the power to stop text spam, the answer lies clearly in the way they market their services. If they do not offer unlimited texting, then the text spam will disappear because it is not worth 50 centavos to mass text everyone in one’s computer database.

For those who are unaware of text spam, text spammers use prepaid SIMs attached to bridge devices which are then connected to computers. The messages are loaded into programs that send to the entire number database, and after the unlimited service is turned on, the computer does everything for the spammer.

Text spam ads may include, but are not limited to, offers of loans from banks (actually sold through third party telemarketing agencies who get commissions); insurance sales masked as “you have won, come and claim” announcements; low rates for staying at certain hotels.

There are also text scams coming from unlimited texters, such as “darling, please send me load” and “you have won in a raffle” messages, which are not selling anything but asking for cellphone load or money (processing fee) from you.

Again: If cellphone companies eliminate their unlimited texting services (which they are masking as promos), text spam can be eliminated. Only legitimate text messages will be taxed.

I fully support the proposed bill metering the telecoms (just like the way they are metering the postpaid subscribers) and text tax for telcos to pay. It was a great idea of the no-pass on to conumers is incorporated in the bill. Be realistic and practical. Telecoms are the highest earning companies. One telecom earns over P40B per year, or over P100,000,000 per day NET INCOME! They need to be tax more, and ensure that proper taxes are paid. many distributors and dealers (electronic load and cell cards) admit that their transactions are not reported to the BIR. Official receipts are practically none. Thus the need for metering. and thus the great objections of Telcos.
Lawmakers should not join in to the propaganda and misinformation of the telcos that text price will increase. They are the lawmakers. They just need to ensure that the no pass-on provision is included in the final bill. Furthermore, even if the telcos include this tax to their bucket text price (which will be illegal), it is not too much. For those who text 60 a day, it is only 3pesos.
Lastly, the NTC can and must set a price limit on text and call just like what the DOH did on prices of medicine. The gov’t was not able add tax to the Pharmaceuticals because they will complain that taxes on them are anti-poor, yet we later realized that prices of medicines are highly overpriced. Even by over 5000%. the same is happening with Telcos.

Thus, the need for our lawmakers and NTC to be firm. They must stop protecting the telcos, and should protect the people instead.

Philippines is a texting nation but was it does say about about our country. One cannot really say that Filipinos are connected or informed using a 150 character mode of communication. It better that we tax texts and use revenues to improve our education system. One good idea is to put up libraries in each barangay, town and school. Libraries that offer not only books but free 60 minute internet sessions to the public. This and the promotion of government tranparency through the Web will greatly streghten our democracy.

There should also be a formal study if text lessens our productivity in the workplace as well as in school because I truly believe that it does.

Taxing unlimited text is easy. They should pay a flat rate per day or per load.

Taxing to lessen text scam is a mistake. I doubt if we lesser the people who are smoking when we increase the tax on cigarretes. If you want to eliminate scam text, make it illegal and give the Telcos the duty to indentify the scammers.

It was brave for Cong. Suarez to proposed this bill. While other lawmakers would try to protect big businesses, especially with the incoming elections, Cong. Suarez did the right thing and proposed taxes for the most profitable and richest companies in the country. he did this even at the strong objections, black propaganda and misinformation orchestrated by the Telecom Companies.
Now some lawmakers, who are protectors of these telecoms and expects campaign contributions, are joining the misinformation campaign, threatening the people of higher text cost.
My goodness. They are the lawmakers and can make sure that the proposed bill will only tax the telecoms and not the consumers. Don’t they think they can do that? Why, are they stupid or do they think we are stupid?

while i agree with some of NoToSpam’s point, i also believe that unlimited texting is not the problem. it’s the people who use it for their own twisted ends. unlimited texting helps people who dont have much to spend but need to communicate through texting. we shouldn’t punnish those who benefit from these promos in the legitimate way along with those who use it the wrong way.

Taxing the text messages is just one of the issues on the proposed law. Monitoring the Short Message Service (SMS) of cellphone companies while said to be just to count the text messages for tax purposes can easily lead to intrusion to one’s privacy. The technology used in such monitoring system is so advanced it can literally record the private communications of anybody.

EDZee, I disagree with you. how can you say that the metering equipment are so advance that it can record conversation? That’s impossible. telcos will not allow it bacause it is illegal. There is no specification yet.
I think the metering equipment will be similar to the metering used by the telcos for their postpaid customers. There is really nothing to worry about privacy. Telcos, BIR and NTC can ensure that it will only record the count of text and calls, not the content of the text or call. Don’t try to misinform the public. Text Metering is a good idea in order to avoid tax evasion. Ordinary people will not object to this. Obviously, only tax cheaters will object to this.

Taxing text messaging is not a bad idea as it generates more taxes for the govt to spend. The question is will this tax really be spent on national development or simply fatten the pockets of certain govt individuals?

This tax will definitely be passed on to the consumers, there is no way that telcos will bear this on their shoulders. Business is all about making profit, without profit, why go into business?

Would it be nice if all taxes collected from SMS messages, etc. goes directly to the budget of the Department of Education to fund state schools, teacher training & salaries (nothing for the head honchos, though, just for the grunts who do the dirty work). I bet you public education in P.I. will improve immensely, better educated Pinoys.