FURTIVE glances at the tax on toll fees by some lawmakers and revenue officials, notwithstanding, I sense that the more reliable signs point to the Aquino administration fiscal managers banking more on the present tax structures, quite likely on arrearages thereof, rather than on the imposition of new duties.

Regarding President Benigno Aquino III’s likely bias against added burden on taxpayers, he may well be stepping up to a meeting of the minds with the House of Representatives, precisely the holder of the government’s purse strings in the place.

As the President’s anti-graft thrust brandished the big stick at tax and tariff evaders under surveillance by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs – House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has promptly sidled up, as it were.

Even as the Speaker declared “imposing new taxes out of the question,” according to The Star, he said reforms were underway to plug tax leakages and radically improve the tax administration. Yes, Jose, he echoed P-Noy’s Tuwid na Daan for both the BIR and Customs leaderships.

“We must drastically reform tax administration if we are to increase revenue and adequately finance needed services and infrastructure – while staying true to our promise against the imposition of new taxes.”

I suppose that’s barring horribly difficult twist and turns in financial policy dictated by unforeseen incidents in the global economy, say competitive economic strategies by China vis-à-vis the United States and the European Economic Community.

In any case, Belmonte indicated that towards the House’s reformist goals, “fiscal incentive rationalization” have to be prioritized along with the removal of “unwarranted benefits” found to have eroded the tax base.

Fiscal thinking congruence between the Batasan and Malacañang, I believe, is bound to agreeable grounds in the Senate. Last I heard from the Upper House big wigs and mediamen, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile remained the undisputed tax and corporate lawyer guru of the chamber.

Huffing from the Senate yesterday, Streetlights resident kibitzer somehow caught his breath to say the political climate for P-Noy’s legislative moves could be at its brightest on the heels of the early submission by the Palace of the 2012 national outlay.

And for the all the heavy downpour flooding Manila and many other places in Luzon, the mood at the BIR has been upbeat on the prospects of its P10 billion worth of cases filed against gold traders.

That’s P13-billion shy of the P23 billion in the tax arrearages of traders who sold gold to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. And with the BSP documents to substantiate the BIR gold tax evasion charges, the chicks probably are about to be hatched, so to speak, for BIR Commissioner Kim Henares to gather and bring home.

Some say, however, the P5.5 billion value-added tax alleged non-payment by a certain Mariann Lim Gaw, owner of the Mega Packaging Corp., could be another story.