ffi Uorraay, September 23,2f)tg .
Editor: Vittorio V Vitug
@
Resistance to
By BERNADETTE D, NrcoLAs
HE chairman of the House
Committee on Ways and
Means scored information
technology and business-process
management (IT-BPM) firrns for
claiming that their taxes will go up
"dramatically" if a bill rationalizingu
fiscal incentives is enacted
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda,
the panel chairman andleadauthor
of Corporate IncomeTaxand Incen-
tives Rationalization Act (Citira)
bill, also challenged IT-BPM firms
to show him their figures.
"I told them, ipapaputol ko ang
daliri ko kung may isang piso na
t
itira not datrdriven- erations outside Metro Manila.
"The NCR is alieady verj' con-
@BNicotasBM
gested. There is aneedto createjobs
outside NCR, in the adjacent prov-
-salceda
inces and in other regions,' Chua
told the BusrNESsMrRRoR-
passed by Congress," he said. 2025; lo 22percentin 2027; and
He also noted that the ban was
Locators -i11 ne"d to give up to 20 percent in 2029, as part of
onlv for new economic zones so IT-
their incentives, including the government efforts to attract
investments to the Philip- BPM fir*" may invest in existing
s-oercent tax on gross income . {nore
ecozones in Metro Manila'
(Gt g), if ,h" Citirabill is ap pines Essentially, if locators give -When
asked whether the tight
""'rn"d
pii"a,.itt"*. u"aer the proposal, up their tax perks and shift to pay
comDetition for office sPac'e in
siven between two years ing CIT' they will pay 28 percent
thev are -u""r,
,r"i rirr" to surrender 11t"1t right away in 2021
Metio Manila was due to PhiliP-
oine Offshore Gaming OPerators
'i""o"rkr.rrdto
shiftto The Ibpap has also expressed
/oavins corporate income tax(CIT). concern that the industry will
"rrentually iPocoO, Chua said: "Well sPace
. '''cuir"nily,".onomiczonefirms Lruggle to grow by 8 percent this
ls
aie allowed to enjoy income tf x l .,r"ql3sfirrnsarehavingdifficulties
is limited everYwhere "
Untal said available office sPace
in Metro Manila is down to 115,000
holiday for up to six _years for
/'-';;rns
iheir operations due to to 120,000 square meters due to the
malugi sa inyo II told, them, I will pioneer a(tivilies and.four years ,ni U.n otr""aono-ic zone develop- influx of POGOs.
have my finger cut if you will losc for non-pioneer activrtres uPll nr"r,t jn Metro Manila. Last Year, the IT-BPM industry
the expiry of their ITH, they wilt
" -pr"ria"rrt
even apesol," Salceda told report, Duterte signed Ad- expanded 42o,ooo sq m. This Year, it
ers in a recent news briefing held perpetuallypay 5-percent tax on ministrative Order 18 in Juire, requires 450,000 sq m to accommo-
in Malacaflang. GtE, be exempted from all local which mandated a moratoriun4 date expansions and new oPerations'
The lawmaker issued the state- and national taxes, enjoy duty' on the pro ces sin g of new applica- With a labor force of 1.23 million
ment after IT and Business Process free importation of raw materi- tions for economic zones in the i,vorkers as of last year, the industry
Association of the Philippines (Ib- als, capital gear and spare parts, National Capital Region. Thus, accounts for at least 32 Percent of
pap) President Rey E. Untal said among others. the philippine Economic Zone office spacesin the PhiliPPines'
the cost of doing operations in the
Although the Citira bill will 4oa6oritv was direc ted to no 1o{r- Under its road maP, the industry
country will rise "dramatically" if reduce CIT to make.the Philip g", process, or evaluate is projected to create 100,000 iobs
firmsare lorced to relinqu ish thpir
".."pt,
pinesmore(ompetitive, therate nroDosalsfoputupneweconomlc annually to emPloY a tbtal of 1"8
fiscal incentives. of this tax is still higher com- iorru, ir'r 5CR, resulting in an of- million workers bY 2022'
pared to the GIE. fice space crunch for the IT-BPM
Salceda also said the resistance
of Citira criti(s is not "numbers
based and data-based."
Under the Citira bill, the CIT ;,,4,rr,ru.
rate of 30 percent will be reduced Finance Undersecretary Kirrl
\ Pqar€-{ry{
"Thatis anideologicalresistance to 28 percent in 2O21,; to 26 per- Kendrick Chua said this can be
because they haven't read the bill cent in 2023; to 24 percent it add."ss"dby op-
"xpandingtheir