Risky business terms force gov’t to assume Malampaya tax load

DOE explains

It is roughly a $2.0-billion tax lien that may end up in legal wrangles, but the Department of Energy (DOE) has provided an impassioned explanation why the government is not “at a disadvantage’ when it assumed the income tax burden of the Malampaya contractor into its royalty share.

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary officer-in-charge Zenaida Y. Monsada has noted that, in essence, it was not a losing proposition for the State considering the very high degree of risks that the Malampaya contractors had to deal with to extract that gas out from the petroleum fields of Philippines’ deep waters.

“We have not been ‘at a disadvantage’ because we were able to attract investments… now, we are collecting about 25 billion a year from Malampaya with our set of incentives. If the investor wasn’t enticed to come, then we cannot expect that amount flowing into gov-