CEZA revenues up 212% in Jan-Sept

REVENUES of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) rose 212 percent in the first nine months of the year on the back of robust collections from offshore virtual currency exchange (OVCE) and blockchain firms and their local business processing outsourcing (BPO) subsidiaries.

Ceza Administrator and Chief Executive Officer Raul L. Lambino said in a statement that revenues during the period amounted to P518.29 billion from P166.88 billion in the same period last year.

OVCE principal licensees paid application and license fees amounting to P 371.94 million at the end of September this year, Lambino said.

Lambino said the primary revenue sources of OVCEs are transactional fees earned from the volume traded on the cryptocurrency exchange where the average global total is pegged at 0.1 percent of each transaction.

“We expect to earn more in the coming months once these OVCEs start to trade cryptocurrencies or conduct primary placement of coins or exchange” he added.

Cryptocurrency exchange is not done in the country but offshore firms have flocked to CEZA for their operation, seeing the economic zone “as a safe haven” even if existing laws do not allow the use of digital assets for payment, Lambino said.

Already listed as CEZA OVCE principal licensees are Golden Millennial Quickpay, Liannet Technology, Ultra Precise, Rare Earth, Tanzer Holdings, Formosa Financial, Asia Premier, Dragon Empire, Galaxy Plus, Orient Express, White Ranch, Sino-Phil, HK Yuen, Tiger Wheel, Digifin Technologies, CR8TIV and IPE Global.

The Ceza head said revenues from interactive gaming operations amounted to P127.31 million, down compared to last year’s P150.83 million.