FIRB grants 70:30 hybrid work for IT-BPMs
The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) finally approved the hybrid work arrangement for Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) enterprises in the Philippines.
Under FIRB Resolution No. 017-22, IT-BPM firms registered under investment promotion agencies (IPAs) are allowed to temporarily operate on a 70:30 hybrid work ratio until September 12, 2022, without any consequences on their tax and fiscal incentives.
The resolution was signed by former Socio-Economic and Development Authority Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, former Budget and Management OIC and Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda, and Assistant Executive Secretary Lorajean Alamin.
In passing the resolution, FIRB emphasized CREATE Act’s Rule 23 which gives them the power to approve the implementation of temporary measures by IPAs in the event of “exceptional circumstances” such as a pandemic.
However, the resolution strictly warned that any IT-BPM sector that would exceed the 30% work-from-home (WFH) threshold will lose its fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for each month/s of non-compliance.
Despite months of back and forth, the FIRB recognized the IT-BPM sector’s contribution to the country’s employment and how the WFH model added to the creation and preservation of jobs during the pandemic.
