The passage of the Promoting Growth, Revenue, and Equity towards Socio-Economic Sustainability (ProGRESS) proposed bill will increase the take-home pay of Filipinos and will help boost household spending, Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan has said. “Definitely, the intention of increasing the take-home pay of workers, particularly low-income workers, is to give them more spending power,” Balisacan told reporters in a briefing last week. The Department of Finance’s (DOF) proposed ProGRESS bill aims to increase the personal income tax exemption from PHP250,000 to PHP350,000, and seeks to exempt micro and small enterprises from the minimum corporate income tax. Balisacan, however, admitted that domestic consumption slowed down mainly due to high inflation and the decline in consumer confidence. While the ProGRESS bill also calls for higher tax on sweetened beverages and tobacco, Balisacan said this will not be inflationary.