The reconstituted Fiscal Incentives Review Board, chaired by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, approved in 2021 the grant of tax incentives to five big-ticket projects with a combined investment capital of P119.5 billion.
Finance Assistant Secretary Juvy Danofrata, who heads the FIRB Secretariat, said the five projects granted tax incentives by the FIRB were from the nine applications submitted by the Board of Investments for approval.
The rail operations of the proposed Makati City Subway were the only project in Metro Manila that obtained tax incentives.
The four other projects are located outside the metropolis. These are in Iloilo, Davao, Batangas and Pampanga and involve cement manufacturing activities and the construction of mass housing units.
One project was disapproved, leaving three more to be decided upon by the board.
Danofrata said the FIRB Secretariat continued to hold town hall meetings and consultations with the various investment promotion agencies and publish e-newsletters. Among the challenges that IPAs face is their limited awareness of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act provisions, particularly on the grant of fiscal incentives and the details of the Strategic Investment Priority Plan.
She said the FIRB Secretariat conducted three town hall meetings with IPA staff and published three e-newsletters to the IPAs about the CREATE law’s provisions.
Dominguez earlier instructed Danofrata to hold a seminar with the heads of the various investment promotion agencies to provide them the information they needed about the CREATE Law.
The FIRB Secretariat launched last year the online system for incentives application known as the Fiscal Incentives Registration and Monitoring System. Instructional videos were uploaded on the FIRB website to guide both the IPAs and the RBEs in accessing and operating the features of FIRMS.
Danofrata said that as of Feb. 14, 2022, only 45 FIRMS accounts were registered in the system, reflecting its low utilization rate.
She said the FIRB would continue to encourage the use of the FIRMS among the prospective and existing business enterprises in investment promotion agencies, as this system is crucial to facilitating the work of the Secretariat in monitoring the applications for tax incentives of IPA locators with investment amounts of below P1 billion.
The FIRB Secretariat said in a report to Dominguez it also approved last year P4.28 billion in tax subsidies for seven government agencies and state-run corporations.
The recipients of the tax subsidies are the University of the Philippines-Baguio, Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., Armed Forces of the Philippines Commissary and Exchange Service, Small Business Corp., Government Service Insurance Corp., Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp.
Under Republic Act 11534 or CREATE law, the grant of tax incentives to registered projects or activities with investment capital of P1 billion and below is delegated by the FIRB to the investment promotion agencies.
The FIRB is also given the discretion to increase this threshold amount.
Dominguez chairs the reconstituted FIRB, with Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez as co-chairman.
After the CREATE law took effect on April 12 last year, Dominguez immediately called for a meeting of the FIRB, whose functions were expanded to cover not only tax incentives given to government-owned or -controlled corporations but also those granted by investment promotion agencies and other state-run agencies to their respective registered business enterprises.
