Incumbent Philippine central bank governor Benjamin Diokno, who will assume a new role as finance secretary next month, has said that he does not favor raising taxes to tackle debt.
Diokno, who is President-elect Ferdinand Marcos’s choice to lead the finance ministry, would rather reduce corruption through digitalization.
“To me, grow the economy, focus on tax administration first, improve the collection,” Diokno told ANC news channel as he said he was “satisfied with the current tax structure”.
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Incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte’s government lowered corporate and personal income taxes but the new Marcos administration is inheriting 11.7 trillion pesos ($224 billion) in government debt. The debt was 60.5% of gross domestic by the end of 2021, which was the highest ratio in 16 years.
The debt was nearly double the 6.4 trillion pesos of liabilities when Duterte took office in June 2016.
