City LGU personnel get wage increases

COTABATO City government employees will receive their increased “take-home pay” following the effectivity of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which also exempts from income taxation those whose annual earnings are P250,000 and below.

The TRAIN law under the Duterte administration, other than decreasing personal income taxes, seeks to generate more revenues through imposition of excise taxes on cars, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages, and fuel, among other sources.

Tax exemption for the 13th Month Pay and other bonuses have also been raised to P90,000.

Marilyn D. Tangonan, City Human Resource Management officer, said that 6.7 percent will be increased on the take-home pay of government workers depending on the salary schedule based on Executive Order Number 201.

Tangonan said there will be a seminar with the Bureau of Internal Revenue to identify how many percent of government employees in Cotabato City will be covered by the income tax exemption.

The official facebook page of the city government of Cotabato shares a post with the National Wages and Productivity Commission official page providing a comprehensive income tax table. This presents a comparison between the previous and current taxes charged to all government workers. It also shows the additional amount to their take-home pay for their monthly salaries.

Moreover, the Sun Star Manila cited the Bureau of Internal Revenue in saying that around 6.8 million or 90 percent of the 7.5 million of taxpayers will be exempted from paying taxes starting 2018, three times than the current two million exempt minimum wage earners.

The city government employees will enjoy the reduced personal income taxes as reflected in their paychecks starting January 15.(ROY HOLGADO, B.A. COMM-3, NDU – MINDANAO EXPOSE’)