FIRB enjoins BoI to finalize SIPP this Jan

THE Department of Finance (DoF) said the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) has ordered the Board of Investments (BoI) to complete the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) this month.

In a statement on Wednesday, it said Finance Secretary and FIRB Chairman Carlos Dominguez 3rd emphasized in a meeting of the Cabinet-level interagency board on December 15 last year that the release and publication of the SIPP will only serve as the first step in attracting potential investors.

SIPP will determine the priority industries, projects and activities for which the government can offer fiscal incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, according to the DoF.

“As I have said before, once the categories are identified, the next step is for each of the investment promotion agencies to identify the specific companies they want to invite and then discuss with them what it would take for them to invest in the country,” Dominguez was quoted as saying.

The Finance department also said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who co-chairs the FIRB, agreed with Dominguez, highlighting that the current SIPP is effective but temporary, based on the BoI’s 2020 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP).

As a result, he asked the BoI to complete the SIPP for presentation to the board this month, considering that the drafting had already taken into account a number of industry studies and factors.

BoI is an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Dominguez previously said in an interview that his department is working closely with the DTI to develop SIPP.

“But, you know, among our discussions is ‘let us really have focus on the industries that we want to bring in.’ And quite frankly, I think that that requires for them a lot of study, for the BoI a lot of study on what the future will most likely emerge . . .,” he explained.

According to the Finance chief, the SIPP must also take into account crisis-proofing strategies.