Government trims down IPP list

MANILA, Philippines -  The Board of Investments (BOI) has removed the creative industries including the business process outsourcing (BPO) under the preferred activity of the Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), a move that is in line with their program of streamlining investment incentives.

Instead, the BPO and other information technology (IT) enabled services were transferred under export activities in the 2011 IPP.

In the original draft of the 2011 IPP, the creative industries cover BPO, IT and IT enabled services and film and performing arts productions. This means that investments in IT, film and performing arts production that are for domestic use will no longer enjoy income tax holidays (ITH).

In the IPP list last year, BPO and the creative industries were part of the preferred activities.

In an interview, BOI executive director Efren V. Leano said that that it will have minimal impact on investments for BPOs and IT enabled services because they are normally export oriented.

For the creative industry that is for domestic use, Leano noted that there has been no investment for the past two years so removing it from the IPP makes sense.

In a separate interview, BOI director for policy and planning Corazon Dichosa said that the inclusion of BPOs in the preferred list was just a marketing ploy of the country to promote BPOs. “It was included in the exports because it is really export oriented.”

Dichosa said that the final draft of the IPP will be approved this week and will be submitted to the office of the secretary soon.

The final draft of the IPP has listed 12 activities under the preferred sector. These are agriculture/agribusiness and fishery automotive, energy, green projects, infrastructure, mass housing, mining, public-private partnership projects research and development, shipbuilding, strategic projects and tourism.