Tieza to roll out red carpet for tourism investors

CEBU, Philippines — Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) vowed to extend red carpet accommodation to tourism investors, as the government is on its way to rationalize the existing tax incentives program.

Under the Trabaho Bill or TRAIN 2, the second package of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, all fiscal incentives currently being offered to investors will be rationalized in an attempt to boost the government’s coffers. This in turn, alarmed the investors in pursuing projects as cost of doing business here is seen to be more expensive.

But Donald Maldonado, TIEZA evaluation and registration division manager for TEZ, said that while existing incentives will be revamped, his office will go out of its way to serve the investors especially in acquiring permits and other documentation processes.

According to Maldonado, Tieza is currently drumming up their marketing efforts to attract more investors to apply or register their projects with the agency amid government’s proposal to rationalize incentives.

“We will be rolling out red carpet [accommodation] for tourism investors and help them in other ways like securing necessary permits,” he said in an interview.

The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on the Trabaho Bill (Train 2), which seeks to encourage investments by bringing down the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 20 percent, and modernize investment tax incentives to enhance fairness, improve competitiveness, plug tax leakages and attain fiscal sustainability.

Maldonado admitted that these changes in the incentive structure may affect the appetite of investors, but only for a while, considering the strong prospects for tourism business in the country.

As of 2017, the tourism industry contributes 12.2 percent of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product), and this is expected to rise further in the coming years.

“The aim of the bill is not to remove incentives but to rationalize them. What we now commit is to boost our non-fiscal incentives,” Maldonado explained.

“We will hand hold the investors in securing other documentary requirements and other needs to offset their losses of some incentives,” he vowed.

TIEZA is an agency of the Philippine national government under the Department of Tourism responsible for implementing policies and programs of the department pertaining to the development, promotion, and supervision of tourism projects in the Philippines.

At present, Tieza has 14 designated and registered TEZ (Tourism Economic Zone) and tourism enterprises across the country, only one of which is located in Cebu. (FREEMAN)