PEZA pushes for tax break continuation amid FIRB’s statement
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is prompting the government to continue offering “globally competitive” fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to attract more foreign investments in the country.
PEZA Director-General Charito Plaza explained that the government “must attract huge capital investments to the country with zero or the least tax to create multiplier effects to the economy, total development, and social progress.”
She added that these investments could then help “develop our lands, bring in new technology, create thousands of jobs and livelihood, grow micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), more businesses, and industries as suppliers of raw and manufactured materials, others as the utilities, facilities and service providers to the principal and sub-industries.”
This comes as Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) Secretariat Head Juvy Danofrata said that investors — particularly business process outsourcing (BPO) firms — should consider giving up their tax incentives as they can survive without these benefits.
Plaza said the FIRB’s stance is “sending wrong signals that the government is only after taxes.”
Companies registered under PEZA are offered numerous tax perks including a six-year income tax holiday, a special tax rate of five per cent of gross income, an exemption to pay all national and local taxes, and tax-free and duty-free importation of machinery, raw materials, and equipment, among others.
