PEZA to amend policies for better incentives, institutionalized WFH
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is looking to amend its policies to create a better incentives system and create an institutionalized work-from-home (WFH) policy for its members.
During the agency’s recognition day for investors, PEZA OIC and Deputy Director General for Policy and Planning Tereso Panga said the 27-year-old PEZA law needs to be modified to put their agency on equal footing with the Board of Investments (BOI).
Earlier this year, several PEZA-registered Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms had to transfer their registration to the BOI to retain their tax perks to keep on implementing a WFH arrangement.
The economic zone authority lacks a definitive legal framework that will allow its members to keep incentives while operating outside designated economic zones.
Panga added that they are also pushing for rationalization in the process of the designation of ecozones as they currently lack the independence to make independent decisions on the matter.
“It’s only PEZA that goes through the presidential proclamation process. In the case of the [Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan] and [Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority], they can designate areas as ecozones without having to go through presidential proclamation,” he stated.
There are currently 421 ecozones across the country, 187 of which are in the National Capital Region (NCR). PEZA is eyeing to create at least 13 additional ecozones in various locations in the Philippines, with one already endorsed to the Office of the President and the remaining ones waiting to be greenlit at the departmental level.