PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., is set to sign into law the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) bill by next week, according to Secretary Frederick Go, Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (OSAPIEA)
“Congress has passed CREATE MORE a few weeks ago, and next week it is expected to be signed into law,” announced Go in a speech at the HongKong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) “Philippines Asean’s Rising Star” forum late Tuesday.
Go said the law will primarily address the concern of foreign businesses on “a lot of uncertainty and a lot of challenges for the exporters in general” of the current CREATE Act.
“For any of you into manufacturing or exporting, you know very well why CREATE MORE is extremely important for industry. Basically it streamlines the approval process of the investment promotion agencies. That means the Board of Investments, PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority), Clark (CLark Freeport and Special Economic Zone), SBMA (Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority), etc, can now expeditiously approve projects. Before it has to go through a lengthy process with the Fiscal Incentive Review Board,” Go said.
“Secondly, it will streamline the processing of VAT refund and also define clearly what is pass-on and what is not and lastly, it will restore predictability in our regulatory environment,” he added.
The signing of the CREATE MORE Law has been anticipated by businesses since it was approved by Congress in September.
Aside from streamlining the process of registering foreign investments, CREATE MORE also seeks to lower corporate taxes to 20 percent from 25 percent and set a local tax of 2 percent for registered business enterprises (RBEs).
It will also grant RBEs a VAT zero rating on local purchases, a VAT exemption on imports, and duty exemptions on imports of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts, and accessories.
CREATE MORE is touted to reinvigorate manufacturing investments in the country, particularly from those based in Japan.
It is also expected to aid in softening the impact exodus in the office space segment of the property market, potentially slashing vacancy rate by five percentage points given its provision mandating companies to adopt at least 50 percent on site work.
