Foreign investors stay despite Citira
Credit to Author: Bernadette Tamayo| Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2019 13:57:28 +0000
NO foreign firm in the country has signified its intention to pull out its investment amid a proposal to rationalize or remove some tax incentives, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.
Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua on Friday said there could have been some misinformation about Package 2 of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).
Package 2 of CTRP is also known as the “Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act” (Citira), which aims to level the playing field for businesses through the rationalization of
tax incentives.
Some foreign chambers of commerce had written the DoF expressing their apprehension about Citira, said Chua on the sidelines of the DoF tax reporting seminar for Senate media.
Asked whether the DoF received any advisory from foreign governments that their respective nationals would pull out their investments in the Philippines, Chua said, “We said to them since the very start, ‘Could you let us know who these firms are, the industries, the types of jobs so that we can understand better?’ Until today we have not received such details from foreign governments and foreign chambers.”
“So, it makes us wonder kung may basis (if there is basis). But there are some [foreign] firms who have told us, and one of them is Luftansa Teknik — which is in the papers, that want to seek clarification,” he added.
“And they say that they are going to invest after the bill is passed. They did not say that they will leave. They just want certainty and that is what we also heard from some others. So, that is the first,” Chua said.
The Finance department had briefed the German and Japanese embassies on Citira after their businessmen received information that “all” tax incentives given to foreign firms in the Philippines would be “removed.”
The DoF said foreign locators got different information, so a briefing was necessary.
“I went to Japan, for instance, on invitation of the Philippine embassy to brief them because they received different information. It is good that it was explained to them,” Chua said.
Pressed whether there were some lobbying against Citira, Chua answered, “I’m not very sure. But most of the time in my presentation they have not read the bill.”