TIEZA sees at least 12 new tourism ecozones this year

MANILA, Philippines — The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) expects to approve at least 12 tourism enterprise zone (TEZs) applications this year.

Nino Ruperto Aquino, TIEZA officer-in-charge for the TEZ management sector, said they started evaluating applications after the Bureau of Internal Revenue affirmed that incentives for TEZs may be enjoyed by investors even beyond 2019.

At present, it takes around two to three months for the TIEZA board to process and designate TEZ applications by area, according to Aquino.

He said the processing time may be cut short to one month if applicants submit all the required documents.

In 2017, the TIEZA approved the application of two flagship TEZs and one private TEZ.

For this year, Aquino said they plan to approve three or four TEZs per quarter.

The incentives include a six-year income tax holiday  that may be extended for another six years, a five percent preferential tax on gross income in lieu of national taxes except for real property tax and fees of TIEZA, a  net operating loss carry over scheme, and import tax exemptions for capital goods and equipment needed for TIEZA-registered activities.

Other incentives include tax credit equivalent to taxes paid on locally sourced goods, and  tax deduction of up to 50 percent of cost of environmental protection and cultural heritage preservation activities, as well as of sustainable livelihood programs of the registered tourism enterprises.

“We are urging the Senate and the House to extend the sunset provision on the grant of incentives to tourism investors for another 17 to 20 years so we can continue to develop TEZs,” Aquino said.

TIEZA is the infrastructure and investments arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT).