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Friday, March 29, 2024

PEZA eyes longer work-from-home setup for locators

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The Philippine Economic Zone Authority wants to extend the work-from-home arrangement enjoyed by registered business enterprises in the IT and business process management sector until September 2022.

“The proposal of PEZA is merely temporary in consideration of the ongoing pandemic,” said PEZA director-general Charito Plaza.

Data showed that 297 IT parks and centers and 1,273 IT-BPO companies are registered with PEZA as of November 2021. These companies need to operate within the PEZA-accredited sites in order to enjoy tax incentives, but the pandemic forced many of them to allow most of their employees to work from home.

PEZA submitted its proposal to the Fiscal Incentives Review Board, the agency created by Republic Act No. 11534, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, which harmonizes tax incentives given to companies.

PEZA said aside from the extension of the WFH scheme, it also sought to allow the movement of IT equipment and assets without limit as long as these are covered by surety bond and appropriate permits.

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PEZA is the biggest investment promotion agency in terms of number of enterprises and registered IT centers/buildings. The agency appealed for the non-imposition of penalties under FIRB Resolution No. 19-21 which allows registered business enterprises of the IT-BPM sector to continue implementing WFH arrangements without adversely affecting their fiscal incentives until March 31, 2022.

“PEZA-registered companies are coping with or recovering from the impacts of the pandemic. If it’s supposed to be a relief measure, we should not penalize the companies; rather, we must continue to assist our registered companies as much as possible given that protecting livelihoods of millions of Filipinos is an important national interest,” said Plaza.

Aside from the recommended temporary measures, PEZA and the Board of Investments also suggested amendments to Sec. 309 of the CREATE llaw to come up with a win-win solution to affected parties given the three-year pandemic and its implication to the economy.

“Both PEZA and BOI support the enactment into law of Senate Bill No. 2306 proposed by Senator Imee Marcos, which seeks to amend the said section of the law,” said Plaza.

Instead of the 50-percent WFH arrangement which is based on revenue, both PEZA and the BOI agreed to seek approval for more than 50 percent WFH based on total workforce or manpower of the IT enterprises.

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