The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) of the Department of Finance briefed Subic Bay Freeport locators on the latest amendments on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act last May 15. 

𝑆𝐵𝑀𝐴 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝐸𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑜 𝐽𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝐿. 𝐴𝑙𝑖𝑛̃𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝐼𝑅𝐵 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 𝑂𝐼𝐶 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑦. 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑙 𝑅𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑧𝑎 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠’ 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑅𝐸𝐴𝑇𝐸 𝐴𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑐 𝐵𝑎𝑦 𝐸𝑥ℎ𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛 𝑀𝑎𝑦 15. 

According to SBMA Chairman and Administrator Eduardo Jose L. Aliño, the said Locators’ Briefing held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center (SBECC) aims to provide information and updates on the CREATE Act to companies here.

The FIRB delegation is composed of Legal Group OIC and Deputy Executive Director Atty. Michael Ricaza, Legal Group Attorney IV Atty. Brandon L. Berad, Monitoring and Evaluation Group Division Chief Lois Ruth Santiago, Financial Analyst II Atty. Ria Mariz Nadora and Financial Analyst II Jessa Mae Rapisora. 

The FIRB is an inter-agency government body authorized by the Philippine law to grant tax incentives to registered business enterprises, whose powers and functions were enhanced under CREATE Act.

Meanwhile, Aliño said that the forum participants consisted of company representatives of Subic Freeport companies engaged in general business, logistics, import/ export, and trading. 

“The feedback we gather from our locators will provide better insight to the agency on its operations, relative to the CREATE Act,” Aliño added.

Last year, Nidec Subic Philippines Corporation gained the unanimous approval of the FIRB, and passed the scrutiny of the eight agency-member FIRB Technical Committee.

With the approval of the FIRB en banc, Nidec Subic is now entitled to Income Tax Holiday for six years, Special Corporate Income Tax for ten years, Duty-Exemption on Importation for 16 years, Value-Added Tax (VAT) Exemption on Importation for 16 years, and VAT Zero-Rating on Local Purchase for 16 years. 

Nidec’s application for the said incentives is synchronized with the CREATE Act that aims to steer the national economy towards global competitiveness by implementing tax policies that are instrumental in attracting investments.