‘Unified’ incentives bill to be offered

Finance, Trade agree on ‘key principles’

THE FINANCE and Trade departments, constantly at loggerheads over the grant of fiscal perks, plan to come up with a "unified position" contained in a new bill to be filed in Congress early next year. 

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said a three-man panel from both departments as well as the National Economic and Development Authority would draft a bill guided by "key principles" agreed upon in a meeting last Friday. 

This measure will be different from the Trade department-backed House Bill 938 or the proposed "Investments and Incentives Code of the Philippines" now pending before a House of Representatives committee. 

"We agreed to have a unified position in the grant of incentives and will work together to [attain] our goals," Mr. Purisima told reporters Friday night. 

The Finance and Trade departments have quarrelled over the grant of incentives, with the former seeking to streamline perks to collect increased revenues and the latter endorsing more to lure investments. 

In order to thresh out differences on the issue, Mr. Purisima said the following "key principles" were adopted: 

the grant of incentives would be made by as few government agencies as possible; 

a "sunset" provision as to when a particular incentive lapses; 

perks should be used to attract investments to the country and therefore their grant to local industries should be minimized; and 

there should be no "fixed sets", with specific incentives allowed only if the firms concerned "need them." 

Mr. Purisima said these principles were just "broad strokes" and specifics would have to be decided by the interagency panel. 

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, in a phone interview, said "Finance’s contribution" would come from a bill the department had drafted and intended to file. 

Batangas Rep. Hermilando I. Mandanas, chairman of the House ways and means committee, declined to comment on the planned bill’s chances. 

Mr. Beltran said the goal is to "get many investments ... without sacrificing revenue collections." 

"The government is losing about P100 billion to incentives every year," he claimed.