To further promote the business-friendly atmosphere in this free port and boost government efforts on transparency, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) extended the validity of business registrations here from one to three years.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma recently released the first batch of Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CRTE) that are valid for three years, and cited the agency’s streamlining of business processes to better serve the needs of business locators.
“This has long been overdue. The previous board under Chairman Garcia promised this to locators, but nothing happened. So we made it a priority project for our 2018 program and we’re proud that after all the hard work, it finally materialized now,” Eisma said.
Eisma added that her administration’s drive for a more investor-friendly climate in Subic is in keeping with President Duterte’s orders for transparency and good governance.
“We want to make life easy for our investors, and the SBMA will continuously work towards improving its system,” she pointed out.
The three-year CRTE was approved by the SBMA Board of Directors on January 26 this year. Then a public hearing to gain acceptance by stakeholders was successfully held on February 28. The announcement of the approved measure was subsequently published on May 9.
Eisma’s office had also taken over the approval and release of CRTEs to further speed up the issuance of this important business document.
According to Kenneth Rementilla, SBMA Deputy Administrator for Business and Investments, business locators were previously required to renew their CRTE annually. But under the new system, businesses with lease terms of more than three years can avail of a three-year registration, or opt for an annual renewal.
Rementilla added that CRTE-holders in the Subic Bay Freeport can enjoy waived value-added tax (VAT), ad valorem and excise tax on internal revenue taxes, customs and import duties, and national revenue taxes, among others.
However, the business locators would have to pay a final tax of 5 percent of the gross income earned (GIE), as required by law. Of the 5 percent final tax, 2 percent is allocated for revenue shares to local government units, while 3 percent goes to the national treasury.
Among those who received the three-year CRTEs from the SBMA are Dongyang Food Machinery Philippines Corp.; Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning Philippines Inc.; Juken Sangyo (Phils.) Corp.; and UPower Building Corporation. (RFD/MPD-SBMA)
PHOTO:
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma joins representatives of Subic-registered companies that received their 3-year CRTE from the Subic agency. (AMD/MPD-SBMA)
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