Not too long ago, there have been attempts to levy some sort of sin tax (on top of E-VAT) on text messaging. For some reason, the law was not passed due to strong lobbying not only by the consumers but more so by the telecommunications companies who knew too well that taxing one of the most popular preoccupations of Filipinos would be detrimental to business. It seems the proposal to levy the additional tax has been revived recently and has been meeting similar resistance of enormous strength among the consumers and businessmen. Whether text messaging will finally be taxed eventually remains to be seen but imagine the effect on the development of ICT in the Philippines if and when the law is finally passed. It is in the mobile phone communications technology where the country experienced greater progress during the last 10 years, perhaps due to the relative affordability and accessibility of such compared to info tech. What happens to ICT if we pursue taxing this popular and progressive communications tech? Will not this hamper ICT growth in the Philippines in general? Doesn't it conflict with programs aimed at promoting ICT on which we rely to give us economic and commercial growth? It seems the government likes taking one step forward and two steps back with this idea. This only goes to show that while we try to achieve the common goal of growth and development, attempts to pursue the goal tend to show fragmented efforts and lack of coordination by the different offices/sectors of the government.

- Marichelle Recio