Tax holiday phaseout up

The Department of Finance has reached a compromise with the Department of Trade and Industry on phasing out income tax holidays extended to foreign and local investors. Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said the agreement was reached during a meeting of the technical working group on the rationalization of fiscal incentives of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives. Beltran said the two departments agreed on a provision in which income tax holidays would be phased out once the country's infrastructure spending reached 5 percent of the gross domestic product. Finance is supporting a bill by Antique Rep. Exequiel Javier stripping the Board of Investments of its function of administering incentives to registered enterprises, phase out income tax holidays in three years and abolish its power to formulate the Investment Priorities Plan. The proposed bill will amend Executive Order 226, or the Omnibus Investments Code of 1987 and introduce a new set of fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to registered enterprises.

in Manila Standard Today by Lawrence Agcaoili
April 23, 2008
Read the article