The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) approved P6.9 billion projects in its last board meeting, bringing total investments for January to August to P62 billion.

PEZA  looks forward to the registration of big-ticket investments the rest of the year, according to Vivian Santos, PEZA deputy director-general.

Santos said PEZA is hopeful of the positive impact of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) on PEZA investments.

Among other things, CREATE MORE provides clarity on value-added tax (VAT) zero-rating on local purchases and VAT exemption on the importation of goods and services. It introduces the Registered Business Enterprise Local Tax which is capped at 2 percent based on gross income to simplify the tax process for businesses.

Santos said the CREATE MORE  provision allowing 50 percent work-from-home (WFH) across PEZA-registered industries is a  big improvement from the current 30 percent cap.

“That has always been our stand. The 50 percent is a welcome respite. Our position is to make a balance, flexibility to ecozone locators,” Santos told reporters on the sidelines of a business matching event in Makati City last Friday.

She said the minimum 50- percent onsite operations  will not only apply to the information technology (IT)-business process management firms but also to other companies including those engaged in  support activities for manufacturing that are  conducted in ecozones.

Santos said a number of PEZA registered-business enterprises which availed of paper transfer to Board of Investments  moved back to their facilities as decided by their management or clients abroad.

“What they represented to us is not the fixed ratio (of WFH setup) but more on flexibility,” she said.

Meanwhile, PEZA  last August  21 approved 21 projects: six projects in manufacturing, six  IT enterprises, four ecozone development  and one project each in  agroindustrial facilities enterprise, ecozone utilities, ecozone domestic enterprise and ecozone logistics enterprise.
No  details were provided.