PCCI supports PEZA’s ploy for CREATE Law amendment

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) recently expressed its support for Philippines Economic Zone Authority’s (PEZA) call for amendments to the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law, saying that simpler VAT exemptions could attract more investors.
“If you’re with PEZA and a local firm supplies you with some materials or components, those are subject to VAT. And it doesn’t provide you that clearly of an option not to pay. But if you are a firm that is BOI (Board of Investments)-registered, you’d get it clearly specified that you’re not subject to VAT,” PCCI president George Barcelon said in an interview with the Inquirer.
Barcelon said that PCCI is fully supporting PEZA’s move to have the CREATE Law reviewed and amended in the next meeting with the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB). He said that the tax reform law complicated the process for value-added taxes (VAT) exemption for government-registered companies.
Under the CREATE Act, PEZA-registered firms are required to submit paperwork proving that they satisfied the conditions provided under the tax reform law.
“They have to show documents… to liquidate. I hope this can be simplified because we really want to make it easy for exporters by having less bureaucracy,” Barcelon said.
PEZA for their part said that it had received complaints from firms registered under the agency regarding the matter.