PEZA CUTS INVESTMENT GOAL ON VIRUS IMPACT
THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has abandoned its goal of growing investments by 10 percent this year and is now settling to get just half of its total last year.
Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza last week said the agency is doing everything it can to make existing locators stay and prospective investors come in. However, she admitted it would be difficult to achieve the initial target of a 10-percent growth on investments due to the global pandemic.
As such, Plaza said the Peza is lowering its objective to just 50 percent of its investment haul last year of P117.54 billion, which was also a decline from 2018 figures.
“We are trying our best to be able to keep existing investors and attract the new investors. We definitely
are expecting half—or 50 percent—of what we have achieved last year, [even as] we are creating that impression investing in the Philippines, through our economic zones in Peza, will assure our investors that it’s Covid-free,” Plaza said in a TV interview.
She vowed her agency will provide all the assistance needed by existing locators in expanding operations, as well as by new investors in setting up shop.
Based on records, investments registered with the Peza from January to May declined close to 32 percent to P29.54 billion,
from P43.22 billion in the same period last year. These capital registrations translated to 113 fresh projects.
Last week, the Peza Board approved 50 new projects, amounting to a total of P22.5 billion, and estimated to generate 8,917 jobs.
Hopes of recovering this year became less and less likely for the
Peza after the implementation of quarantine that kept much of business operations suspended. Entering the year, the agency set a goal of growing its investment haul by 10 percent, but numerous crises tracing to the Taal Volcano eruption in January made that difficult to accomplish.
The Peza is trying to recover from two consecutive years of double-digit losses.
Last year investments applied to the agency fell more than 16 percent to P117.4 billion, from P140.2 billion in 2018, on uncertainties caused by the government’s move to rationalize fiscal incentives. For two years now, the Duterte leadership has been pushing for the legislation of a measure to overhaul tax perks granted to economic zone firms.
Economic zones, which the Peza regulates, employ roughly 1.6 million workers nationwide and contribute a huge sum of the country’s export total.
Locators warned they will shut down operations here and transfer to another Southeast Asian economy if their incentives, particularly the 5-percent tax on gross income earned in lieu of all local and national taxes, are lifted. The Peza, for their part, has been asking Congress to make no changes in the fiscal system, especially in this time of crisis.