MANILA – The Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines (JFC) has urged the Duterte administration to retain the incentives of companies registered under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers are moving to rationalize fiscal incentives under the second package of tax reforms dubbed as the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities (TRABAHO). It is also called by many as TRAIN 2.

“Absolutely leave PEZA alone,” Ebb Hinchliffe, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham), said in a press conference in Pasay City.

The JFC is composed of AmCham, Australia-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce Philippines (ANZCham), Canadian Chamber of the Philippines (CanCham), European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), Japanese Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (JCCP), Korean Chamber of Commerce Philippines (KCCP), and Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. (PAMURI).

Rationalizing fiscal incentives under TRAIN 2 would impact on foreign investments in a negative way, JCCP president Naoto Tago said.

The House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading the proposed TRABAHO bill.

The measure seeks to lower the corporate income tax from 30 percent to 25 percent over 10 years and rationalize fiscal incentives.

“We are advocating for the continued operation of PEZA as it now and make sure it is still competitive with the rest of the region,” PAMURI vice president Celeste Ilagan said. 

This article was originally published in Panay News on September 15, 2018