By Kris M. Crismundo
MANILA, Feb. 4 (PNA) — The government considers giving incentives to companies catering to the domestic market inside the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) which will also enjoy tax perks for locating in an economic zone.
In a press conference at the CS Garment in Cavite Economic Zone on Wednesday, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said that PEZA Director General Lilia de Lima has submitted a proposal to give incentives to firms oriented to the domestic market to locate in the export ecozone.
Domingo said the proposal will prepare the local industry to the projected “flood” of products from Southeast Asian countries with the free trade agreement (FTA) in ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) taking place at end-2015.
“The issue there is: how do we treat taxes? We’re actually in the midst of formulating a policy and we don’t know how long it will take,” he said.
At the sidelines of the briefing, PEZA’s de Lima said they are eyeing to give 5.0-percent rate on gross income tax in lieu of national and local taxes for domestic-oriented firms locating inside PEZA ecozones.
Under the law, PEZA provides fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to registered ecozones and locators to support the country’s export sector.
Companies registered in PEZA, though, is required to have export sales of 70 percent while the remaining 30 percent can be contributed by the domestic market. (PNA)