BOI ordered to finalize priority sectors covered by CREATE fiscal incentives by January

The Board of Investments (BOI) has been given until the end of the month to finalize priority industries, projects, and activities which will be granted fiscal incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives and Enterprises (CREATE) Act.

The priority sectors will be highlighted under the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP), which the BOI should finalize by January 2022 as ordered by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB).

FIRB chairman and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III cited the need to present the SIPP to the board this month, as a number of industry studies and parameters have already been considered in the draft.

“As I have said before, once the categories are identified, the next step is for each of the investment promotion agencies (IPAs) to identify the specific companies they want to invite, and then discuss with them what it would take for them to invest in the country,” he was quoted as saying in an emailed statement from the Department of Finance (DOF).

President Rodrigo Duterte signed the CREATE bill into law in March 2020, effectively reducing the corporate income tax to 25% for corporations, and 20% for micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Under the definition of the Department of Trade and Information (DTI), micro enterprises are defined as those with total assets worth less than P50,000; cottage enterprises with assets worth P50,001 to P500,000; small with P500,001 to P5 million; and medium from over P5 million to P20 million. — RSJ, GMA News