The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is calling for the enactment into law before the end of the year of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) bill to immediately reap the benefits of this key reform.
Benedicto Yujuico, PCCI president, made this call at the group’s annual general meeting last week after the Senate passed the bill two weeks ago.
PCCI sees CREATE and other initiatives as part of an overall fiscal and economic stimulus program that will help industries get back on their feet.
In a statement last week, Secretary Carlos Dominguez of the Department of Finance expressed hope CREATE will be submitted for the President’s signature this December.
“This will allow taxpayers to properly adjust their books and returns for the filing season as the reduction of the CIT (corporate income tax) rate (to 25 percent from 30 percent) will be retroactively applied to July 1 of this year,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said the Senate’s timely passage of the CREATE bill will provide businesses with one of the largest economic stimulus measures in the country’s history to help them recover from the economic turmoil caused by the new coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Yujuico, however, said even with a lot of economic activities already allowed, businesses continue to face an uncertain future.
“Yet, despite the uncertainty, there is good to be learned from our experience,” he said, adding the pandemic forced many of enterprises to adopt innovative measures to adapt and to recover.
“Some of the MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) in the non-essential industries were agile enough to be able to operate even within the confines of our homes, working online, accelerating the process of digitalization, automation and the adoption of new ways of doing business with better technology. However, plenty have not been so lucky, losing their customers and shutting their doors,” Yujuico added. (I. Isip)
