The Board of Investments (BOI) said its fiscal incentives are already aligned with the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) of the Duterte administration.
The CTRP Package 2, which follows the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, is pushing for reforms in corporate income tax and fiscal incentives.
It involves rationalizing the fiscal incentives given by the country’s investment promotion agencies (IPAs), such as the BOI.
At a news conference on Monday, Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino S. Rodolfo Jr. said perks provided by the agency to the investors are already time-bound, focused and performance-based.
Rodolfo said the BOI only provides registered investors four years of income tax holiday (ITH), which can be extended to a maximum of two years.
Its incentives are also focused on industries identified under the Investment Priority Plan, a list of preference investment activities, which may be given tax perks.
The trade official said the BOI evaluates every project registered with the IPA to ensure that the company is complying with its commitments before further endorsing for tax perks to the Bureau of Internal Revenue. “We already talked with the Department of Finance [DOF] about the second package of CTRP,” Rodolfo said in Filipino.
“We are in alignment within the parameters that [the] DOF set.”
Moreover, Rodolfo said the BOI remains fiscal positive, which means, for every incentive it gives out, the government still has higher gains in terms of taxes—withholding tax, value-added tax and property tax, among others.
He noted that only 50 percent of those registered companies applying for ITH were endorsed by the BOI to the BIR, as the agency reviewed the compliance of those firms with the IPP rules.
The BOI executive also said many projects recently registered with the IPA will be located outside Metro Manila, in line with the Duterte administration’s push for countryside development.