Legislators in the lower house are pushing again to tax text messages to contribute around P200 million to the government coffers.

Quezon City representative Danilo Suarez, who also heads the oversight committee in the lower house, said he is reviving his proposal to impose the "text tax" on an estimated 2 billion text messages sent daily in the Phiippines to help fund the government's social services programs.

He said he is planning to slap a 10-centavo fee on each text message and will urge telecommunication giants Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular to refrain from passing on to consumers the new fees. He said the fee is relatively small and that the revenues that would be collected by the government would be used “for a good cause.”

House Speaker Prospero Nograles said he will support Suarez's proposal provided that the additional fees will not be passed on to consumers. He insisted that the P1 per text rate currently charged by the telecommunications companies should be cheaper by 75 centavos.

"Even if we charge a 10-centavo fee on every text sent, the telcos are still overcharging us by 65 cents per text," Nograles said.

Speaking to DZMM this morning, senator Manuel Villar rejected the taxt on tex.

"We are in a crisis so we should not tax text messages. This is the only way to communicate so why tax it? This should not even be discussed now.

Consumer group "Text Power" is also opposing the proposed tax on text messaging. Despite a "no pass-on provision," the group believes the 10 centavo fee per text will still be shouldered by consumers. Text Power said its members will go to congress.

Previous attempts to tax text messages have failed because of strong public opposition to raising the cost on the cheapest form of communication favored by the poor.

Barking on the wrong tree?

Villar said instead of going after P200 million revenue contribution from text taxes, legislators should just enact laws to impose higher taxes on sin products, like alcohol and cigarettes.

The finance department has been pushing for revisions to the law on sin taxes to raise additional P90 to P120 billion revenues in the next 3 years.

Finance secretary Margarito Teves said a 2007 study of the Social Weather Station showed 82 percent of Filipinos were in favor of increasing cigarette taxes

"This proposal is probably the most acceptable to the Filipino public of all the proposed revenue enhancement measures because we are increasing tax on vices," Teves told a recent gathering of businessmen.

The proposed bills that would simplify the current complex sin tax system to a simpler one, however, remain stuck in congress.

Analysts and credit raters have cited the lower-than-expected sin tax collections as one of the key reasons for concerns over the country's widening fiscal deficit.