The enactment of the CREATE bill into law would usher in the country’s economic recovery next year.
Trade and Industry Sec. Ramon Lopez said as the government would continue to implement its recovery plan next year, signing the CREATE bill into law is vital as this defines the country’s future incentive regime.
Lopez said the DTI believes that the CREATE law is a “big boost to attract foreign investors in the country”.
Many foreign investors have put their investment plans on hold as they are waiting for the final structure of incentives under the CREATE bill, he added.
“Our MSMEs will benefit the most from CREATE, as it provides for an immediate 10-percent reduction in the CIT (corporate income tax) rate, bringing it down to 20 percent from 30 percent at present,” he said during the Manufacturing Summit 2020.
He added that the CREATE would also give income tax holiday of four to seven years to export and domestic enterprises in activities classified as critical industries and a five-percent special corporate income tax rate based on gross income earned, in lieu of all national and local taxes for 10 years.
In the same virtual event, DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo echoed that Senate Bill 1357 has removed the nationality and export bias of giving tax perks to investors.
Under Executive Order 226, the Board of Investments is not allowed to provide incentives to foreign companies investing here to manufacture products to be sold to the domestic market.
“We should be able to incentivize those who are going to locate their facilities here regardless of ownership as long as (the) value add and the employment will be here in the Philippines,” Rodolfo said.
The CREATE, once enacted into law, would help in developing local supply chain networks, he added.
The CREATE would give incentives for companies that source their raw materials locally that would help to develop the local micro, small, and medium enterprises rather than importing the cheapest price of input components from any other place in the world.
Rodolfo added that coupled with Bayanihan to Recover as One or the Bayanihan 2, the administration’s tax reform program would help in the economic recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
