THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it has always been prudent in granting income-tax holidays to investors but its hands are tied on some of the measures that require the handing out of tax perks.
Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told a roundtable discussion with the BusinessMirror, Philippines Graphic and dwIZ on Wednesday that since Day One of the Aquino administration, he made sure that tax perks were only given to the right investors to prevent the erosion of government revenues.
“We are in close coordination with the Department of Finance on how to do it. We should not give unnecessary tax perks to investors,” Domingo said. He said some of the laws, such as the Renewable Energy Act and the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Act, call for income-tax holidays for a certain period to attract investors for the sectors.
According to the list of major approved projects of the DTI that are eligible for tax perks from January to September this year, the government approved only a handful of projects for the agricultural and renewable- energy projects.
Among the biggest projects approved for tax perks were the P74.78-billion modernization program of Petron Corp.’s Bataan oil refinery project, the P49.2-billion project of Silangan Mindanao Mining Co., the P24.94-billion project for Silangan Mindanao Mining Co. as a new producer of copper concentrate with gold and silver byproducts, and the P14.44-billion project for the 86-megawatt wind-energy project in Ilocos Norte of Energy Development Corp.
The Board of Investments, however, also gave out tax perks for various condominium projects, which were labeled as mass-housing projects of large firms, such as SM Development Corp., Filinvest Land Inc., Megaworld Corp. DMCI-Project Developers Inc.
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By: VG Cabuag
Source: Business Mirror, Nov. 9, 2011
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