Foreign businesses want the next administration to revisit the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law to raise by 50 times to $1 billion the threshold of investments that go through the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), which they dubbed as another layer of bureaucracy in approving projects.
Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) at the Arangkada Forum yesterday raised the need to review that provision of the law to facilitate approvals of projects especially at the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).
The Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) echoed Lachica’s clamor and believes PEZA should be given more powers in approving investments.
John Forbes, senior adviser of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said in a press conference the threshold SEIPI is advocating is closer to $1 billion, and not P1 billion as CREATE states, for speedy approval of export projects in PEZA.
Ho Ik Lee, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said the group believes CREATE changed the rules in the middle of the game when it comes to incentives.
“We strongly suggest existing companies which invested previously keep the same incentives the government promised and guaranteed,” said Lee.
He noted even before the pandemic which disrupted the global supply chain , the Philippines’ supply chain has collapsed due to truck bans and other logistics issues which diminished the country’s competitiveness.
“Many Korean companies (in the Philippines which are) exporting to the US are having difficulties,” Lee said.
This, Lee said, was aggravated by the implementation of CREATE which reduced the incentives.
“We need more incentives if the government wants more investments,” Lee added.
“Do not stick their hands… do not stop that kind of helping hand for us,” said Nobuo Fujii, vice president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry , said referring to assistance received by Japanese investors from PEZA, whose power has been clipped by the FIRB.
Daniel Alexander, president of the Australia-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, said any grant of additional power to PEZA would help attract foreign direct investments (FDIs).
In his remarks at the Forum, Alexander said the Philippines has ”amazing potential, amazing people and amazing possibilities, but for too long has fallen short of fully realizing those.”
“Should we see an effective national leadership good economic management, continuity of sound policies from one administration to the next we expect recovery and growth to be even better, to bring us an even better normal,” said Alexander. – Irma Isip
