The Fiscal Incentives Review Board, chaired by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, asked the Board of Investments to finalize this month the Strategic Investment Priority Plan.
The BOI, an investment promotion agency, is attached to the Department of Trade and Industry.
The SIPP will determine the priority industries, projects and activities that can be granted fiscal incentives by the government under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act.
Dominguez said in the meeting of the Cabinet-level interagency board the release and publication of the SIPP would serve as the first step in attracting potential investors.
“As I have said before, once the categories are identified, the next step is for each of the investment promotion agencies to identify the specific companies they want to invite, and then discuss with them what it would take for them to invest in the country,” Dominguez said.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who co-chairs the FIRB, agreed with Dominguez. Lopez said the current SIPP is effective but a transitional one, based on the 2020 Investment Priorities Plan of the BOI.
Lopez directed the BOI to finalize the SIPP for presentation to the board this month, considering that a number of industry studies and parameters were considered in the drafting.
The CREATE Act, which became effective in April 2021, reduced the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent, and rationalized the grant of fiscal incentives to investors.
