The Philippines’ trade and industry secretary Peter Favila had suggested taxing the text messaging in the country. The secretary who is one of the trusted cabinet members of the administration yesterday called on the government to take action on cell phone users and service providers to pay taxes on text messaging.
The secretary, and maybe acting contumaciously, believes that unimportant text messaging is rampant in the country and the people should pay taxes for wasting time, energy and money. He further added that the proposed tax will cut and minimize the habit of unwanted cell phone use, giving the people a break from too much spending in text messaging.
But before the proposal could take off and slap the cell phone addicts of taxes, the people promptly rejected the idea with revulsion. A text brigade was conducted and bombarded the secretary with uninterrupted text messages from all over the country. The public reaction was an ultimate warning to the government. The people have already suffered enough from the debilitating high prices of goods.
Some quarters are now suspicious of the recent moves of the government about new taxes. They suspected that the government is now acquiring big funds for the 2010 election. Not even the lotto bet escaped the eyes of the government; the concerned officials have raised the 49 lotto bet from 10 pesos per block to 20 pesos. Lotto collections run in billions of pesos. This is a big money and election time is fast approaching.