PHL rushing 2013 IPP for industries with tax and duty-free benefits

Industries to be given six- and four-year tax incentives and duty-free importation of capital equipment under the 2013 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) are largely the same as last year's list, the Board of Investments said Wednesday.

 

The IPP and its implementing rules will be released in May.

 

The 2012 list of industries included agriculture/agribusiness and fishery, creative/knowledge-based activities, shipbuilding, mass housing, iron and steel, energy; infrastructure, research and development, green projects, motor vehicles, strategic projects, hospital/medical services, as well as disaster prevention, mitigation and recovery projects.

 

In the 2013 IPP draft, however, the Department of Trade and Industry removed the pioneer projects' criteria and the amount of investment to be classified as a priority industry.

 

Instead, projects are given pioneer status under the 2013 IPP only if the service or project is totally new to the Philippines.

 

Pioneer projects in the 2012 IPP include large investments of at least $100 million, like shipbuilding.

 

Another change in the proposed 2013 IPP is the need for agriculture projects to include a “comment or opinion” from the Department of Agriculture.

 

“This change was suggested by the Agriculture Department... They want all projects to be referred to them first,” said BOI executive director for Industry Development Group Lucita P. Reyes during the last consultation meeting for the 2013 IPP at the Makati Palace Hotel on Wednesday.

 

Prompted by the clamor of Philippine hog raisers late last year, the Agriculture Department criticized the Investments Board for giving Thailand's Charoen Pokhphand Food Philippines Corp. a pioneer status under the 2012 IPP.

 

Also, toll way and railway projects were moved and consolidated under the heading public-private partnership projects.

 

Power projects in missionary or off-grid areas were also removed in the draft IPP, but Reyes noted the Investments Board is still waiting for the Department of Energy to comment on the matter. The BOI last year mulled over the idea of removing all power projects from the IPP but the concept did not materialize.

 

President Benigno Aquino III has to approve the 2013 IPP, and stakeholders have until March 20 to submit position papers before the BOI sends its draft to Malacañang at the end of the month.

 

“This list carries over last year so it should move faster but of course that depends on the President. We hope, however, that it will be out by May including the implementing guidelines,” said  Reyes. — VS, GMA News