MALACAÑANG 
Manila

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 74

CONSTITUTING THE TECHNICAL STAFF OF THE JOINT LEGISLATIVE-EXECUTIVE TAX COMMISSION AS A NEW AGENCY UNDER THE ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISION OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, TO BE KNOWN AS THE NATIONAL TAX RESEARCH CENTER.

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to restructure our tax system and raise the level of tax consciousness among our people to achieve a faster rate of economic growth and to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth and income taking into full account the requirements of the New Society, and considering the experience and practices of other countries, particularly Asian nations;

WHEREAS, in order to have a systematic and objective approach to tax reform in this country, there must be a continuing research on taxation, a need recognized even by the United Nations as embodied in its Report on the Meeting of the Expert Group on Tax Reform Planning in 1970;

WHEREAS, there is now a Joint-Legislative-Executive Tax Commission which was created precisely to serve this need and has been in fact serving it through its continuing studies and research which have been the basis of tax policy and legislation;

WHEREAS, to effect a faster realization of effecting needed reforms, it is imperative that this agency and its function be placed under the Executive Branch of the Government;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, do hereby order and decree as follows:

1. The Technical Staff of the Joint Legislative-Executive Tax Commission is hereby converted into a purely executive single-headed agency under the administrative supervision of the National Economic Development Authority, to be known as the National Tax Research Center.

2. The National Tax Research Center, to be headed by an Executive Director, shall continue to perform the pertinent functions of the Joint Legislative-Executive Tax Commission under Republic Act No. 2211.

3. Such personnel as may be necessary from the technical, administrative and other supporting staffs of the Joint Legislative-Executive Tax Commission, as well as its applicable appropriations, records, equipment and property are transferred to the National Tax Research Center.

Implementation of this decree shall be carried out by Letter of Implementation which shall be issued by me or by my duly authorized representative. Consonant with the provisions of said Letter of Implementation, the Executive Director of the National Tax Research Center shall, within a period of sixty days from the issuance thereof, effect the organization of the units of the agency in consultation with the Presidential Commission on Reorganization.

Done in the City of Manila, this 6th day of December, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-two.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) ALEJANDRO MELCHOR
Executive Secretary

Source: Malacañang Records Office