MANILA - The Senate is unlikely to pass the second package of tax reforms this year, but will try to pass a bill granting amnesty to delinquent tax payers, a senator said on Tuesday.

The second package, dubbed as the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (TRABAHO), seeks to cut corporate income taxes and rationalize fiscal incentives.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said senators are not keen on passing the TRABAHO bill, but will prioritize the tax amnesty bill, which the Department of Finance dubs as Package 1B.

Besides granting amnesty to erring taxpayers, Package 1B also seeks to raise the cost of registering motor vehicles.

The DOF said this was submitted together with Package 1A or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) in 2016, but was not approved together with TRAIN.

"We committed to pass it, if not next month, hopefully by January [2018] ma-approve na ang tax amnesty measure ,” Zubiri said.

Zubiri said they told Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez that they would prioritize dealing with inflationary problems before passing other tax measures.