Our Poster Boy of Tax Reform

“Tax reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” – Max Baucus

Before he was formally presented to the Senate for his confirmation as Socioeconomic Planning Secretary, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto introduced him as a “NERD, but with K-Pop looks.” He qualified his statement by saying that “NERD” meant “National Economist for Recovery and Development. “In the Cabinet,” he said, “he is the youngest in years, but one of the wisest in experience.” Indeed, if Secretary Karl Kendrick Tiu Chua’s track record in economic policy, fiscal policy, tax administration and political economy is concerned, this young, frail-looking technocrat is an administrative heavyweight on his own. Appointed as acting chief of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) in April 2020 after former Secretary Ernesto Pernia resigned from his post, he was later officially appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as NEDA secretary.

A personal friend and a co-alumnus in Xavier High School, Secretary Karl has been the driving force behind the country’s economic recovery measures and a “new normal” plan following the financial shocks caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the country. He was the person chiefly behind the administration’s comprehensive tax reform bill which aimed to decrease personal income taxes and introduce higher consumption taxes to support the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program and was described as the “poster boy of tax reform” by several media outlets and was instrumental in the passage of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (later, passed as the TRAIN Law).

He began his career as a systems analyst with Accenture (then called Andersen Consulting) from 2000 to 2002. In 2004, he was teaching as Assistant Professorial lecturer of Mathematics and Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University. He was then hired as a research analyst for the World Bank Group in 2005 and soon resigned from his teaching job when he was promoted as its country economist for the Philippines in 2008. He was with the World Bank for 12 years before he was plucked to serve the Philippine Government when he was sworn in as Undersecretary for the Strategy, Economics and Results Group of the Department of Finance in September 2016. As undersecretary, he served as the administration's point person in Congress for its second tax reform agenda to lower corporate income taxes in the country with the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act or CITIRA. He is also credited for the passage of legislations increasing the sin tax on tobacco and alcohol products and introducing a sugary drink tax and excise taxes on electronic cigarettes and vapes to fund the Universal health care program signed into law in February 2019.

A proud product of Xavier School who graduated as a Xavier Awardee in 1996, the highest honor that the school can give to its students, he completed his Bachelor of Science in Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University in the year 2000, and later earned his Master’s in Arts in Economics as well as his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, in 2003 and 2011, respectively. His work in government was certainly recognized in full; he was named one of country’s prestigious “The Outstanding Young Men” honorees or TOYM for Economic Development in 2018 by the Junior Chamber International Philippines for his exceptional efforts in ensuring equitable and sustainable financing for the country’s key infrastructure and human development programs through an effective tax reform agenda.

Certainly, Secretary Karl is one of this administration’s brightest and most promising stars in the Cabinet. With his immeasurable talents, I am confident that he will continuously and consistently perform well in his crucial task of jumpstarting our economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.