BOI fails to meet deadline for car program's IRR

MANILA, Philippines - The Board of Investments (BOI) has failed anew to meet the deadline for the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the new Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Development Plan (MVDP).

The first deadline was set in Aug. 31. Because of the change in the leadership at the BOI, the deadline was extended until Sept. 30. However, BOI managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said they may not again meet the deadline because of his tight schedule.

 “We were unable to finish because of my many trips,” Panlilio said. Panlilio is currently in Washington to lobby for the passing of the Save Act before the US Congress.

Panlilio said the new deadline is mid-October. This time he said they are confident that they will meet it because they have already received inputs from the car manufacturing sector. Even car importers, represented by the Alliance of Vehicle Importers and Distributors Inc (AVID) submitted their position on the MVDP.

On the matter of importers, Panlilio said he does not have to answer the letter of AVID. “I don’t have to answer them (AVID). We are just getting their suggestion. Now we know their position,” Panlilio said.

In spite of this, BOI Executive Director Efren Leano said they have already assured AVID that the tariff on imported vehicles will not go up because of the MVDP. “We have pointed out to them before that we have no plans to increase the tariff.”

Leano said AVID has been repeating the same complaint over and over again and the BOI has been giving them the same answer.

Leano said that there is nothing stopping the BOI from raising the tariff on imported vehicles because the tariff is unbound and any upward movement will not violate any World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. He said the BOI can move the tariff any time but right now there are no plans of doing so. “Since it is unbound we will not violate the WTO if we increase the tariff,” Leano said.

At the same time, Leano noted that they will not increase the tariff because even the auto assemblers in the country sell imported cars. “Even if you combined the imports of all AVID members, the imports of auto assemblers are larger so increasing the tariff will also be harmful to them. We want to look after the industry,” Leano stressed.