FIRB OK’d 25 projects worth P287.9 billion in 1st year of Marcos admin

The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) gave the green light for 25 projects— collectively worth more than a quarter of a trillion pesos—to enjoy tax incentives under the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Act during the Marcos administration's first year in office, the Department of Finance said.

“Since the beginning of the PBBM administration to today, the FIRB has approved 25 projects worth a total investment capital of P287.9 billion,” Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in his weekly press chat.

The FIRB is an interagency body given the authority to grant tax incentives—income tax holiday, duty exemptions, value-added tax exemptions on imports, enhanced deductions, among others—to registered enterprises in the country with investments or projects worth above P1 billion.

“That’s a pretty decent performance…that's a quarter of a trillion. Can you imagine? Multiply that by six [years]... that’s P1.5-trillion investment,” Diokno said.

The Finance chief said the FIRB-approved projects are expected to generate around 24,617 jobs in telecommunications, data centers, manufacturing, infrastructure, tourism, hospitals, mass housing, energy, and IT-BPM.

“Some of the biggest activities include nationwide energy projects by Enovate Motors Corporation at P16 billion and Century Summit Carrier at P15.8 billion; data center projects by Evolution Data Centres Philippines at P9.7 billion and Digital Edge Philippines at P5.4 billion; and telecommunications infrastructure in multiple locations by Unity Digital Infrastructure at P147 billion and LBS Digital Infrastructure Corporation at P36 billion,” Diokno said.

Based on the data provided by the Department of Finance, the total projected amount of tax incentives or foregone revenue from the approved investments is estimated at P29.97 billion.

Despite this, the Finance chief said, “We look at the benefit cost analysis rather than foregone revenues.”

“The focus of this FIRB is now we are able to track,” Diokno said. — BM, GMA Integrated News