PEZA: Bid to move BPOS to BOI misleading

THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said the proposal to let business process outsourcing (BPO) companies transfer from PEZA to the Board of Investments (BOI) is misleading because under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law, all Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAS) now have the same incentives to offer to investors and locators.

“We must give the freedom to choose which IPA investors would want to register and be factual of the benefits of considerations of registering to a specific IPA,” added PEZA Director General Charito B. Plaza in a statement on Wednesday.

This, Plaza said, after“some officials seem to pi tip as lu ring the transfer of locators from one to the other.”

Plaza noted that PEZA, the top IPA in the country that operates nationwide, offers many advantages for registered business enterprises (RBES) located inside the special economic zones.

Particularly, she said, PEZA’S ease of doing business (EODB) provides a one-stop shop and a non-stop shop, exempting investors from local government units (LGU) and other agencies’ permits. Plaza added, “Being inside the economic zones, locators are assured of safety, security and a smart, sustainable, and green ambiance.”

Meanwhile, for his part, IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) President Jack Madrid said registering with IPAS such as the BOI and PEZA is “an important, complex decision” made by companies based on their business goals, priorities, and investment criteria.

In a statement on Wednesday, Madrid pointed out that while incentives have been made uniform across the different IPAS through the CREATE law, “the policies that govern the administration and supervision of registered enterprises among IPAS are not uniform and transfers of registrations from one IPA to another may not be as easy.”

On Monday, House Ways and Means panel chairman Joey Sarte Salceda urged the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to mount a “concerted effort” to manage BPO’S shift from the PEZA to the BOI. Salceda added that allowing BPOS to implement work-from-home (WFH) arrangements will help the country deal with currency depreciation.

Salceda he has pitched with the incoming Speaker and with several economists and members of incoming President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet that one of the best ways to deal with currency depreciation is to simply earn more dollars. And, the lawmaker stressed, the BPO sector is a big part of that strategy. “We really need to allow them to work from home,” added Salceda.

The lawmaker noted that the best way to promote digitalization of the economy is to manage the shift of BPO firms from PEZA registration to the more flexible enhanced deductions system either still as exporters or as BOI-registered domestic enterprises.

For her part, Plaza said the WFH must not be used as a basis for transfer. In fact, Plaza said, “If it is the consideration, the truth is that PEZA had been avante-garde as it was the first IPA to allow WFH since 2017. This was enhanced the following year by the passage of the Telecommuting Law allowing WFH, other Flexi-time, and hybrid work schemes [especially] in the time of the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, IBPAP’S Madrid reminded everyone that “those who are currently registered with PEZA have been faced with immense uncertainties in the past couple of years—adapting their operations to the changing regulatory landscape while managing the upheavals caused by the pandemic.”

They deserve, Madrid said, clear and consistent legislation to ensure minimal disruptions to their operations. including “giving them autonomy on whether to keep their projects with PEZA or to transfer their registration with BOI.”