Posted on
April 29, 2013 10:17:26 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
ENTERPRISES
operating in economic zones and freeports seeking to get incentives under the Republic
Act 9400, which amended the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992 (BCDA
Law), must cancel their registrations under other preferential regimes,
according to the Finance department.
Department Order (DO) 18-2013, dated April 16
and published in a newspaper yesterday, clarified RA 9400’s implementing rule
on the grant of incentives.
Section 12 of
the implementing guidelines, issued formally as DO 3-2008 by the Finance
department, stipulated that economic zone and freeport enterprises already
availing of incentives provided for under RA 9400 shall be disqualified from
availing of other incentives and benefits defined or granted under other laws
or regulations.
DO 18-2013
amended the section to include this sentence: “Qualified enterprises already
enjoying incentives under other preferential regimes should have their
registrations thereunder cancelled before they may subsequently avail of the
benefits provided under RA 9400.”
RA 9400,
signed in April 2007, provides fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to firms in
economic zones and freeports managed by the Bases Conversion and Development
Authority, such as Subic Special Economic Zone, the Clark Special Economic
Zone, and the Clark Freeport Zone, among others.
The perks
include a special tax rate of 5% on gross income earned in lieu of national and
local taxes and the tax- and duty-free importation of raw materials and capital
equipment. Income tax holidays are excluded.
Several
incentive-granting agencies aside from the BCDA, however, provide other fiscal
and non-fiscal perks other than those granted or defined under the BCDA Law,
such as tax credits and exemption from wharfage dues and export taxes and other
fees.
RA 9400
stated that firms registered under and granted other incentives by other
agencies shall be entitled to the incentives only until the expiration of their
contracts that were entered into prior to the effectivity of the law. --
Bettina Faye V. Roc
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