Fewer industries may get to enjoy perks in ’14

The Department of Trade Industry is trimming the number of industries and economic activities that will be eligible for fiscal perks under next year’s Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), as part of a move to streamline the country’s incentive regime.

“We expect to see some important and significant changes for the 2014 IPP, which should be designed to cover at least three years,” Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said in a briefing Friday. “By law, we’re required to come up with the IPP annually, but we are designing the 2014 IPP to cover about three years, from 2014 to 2016, for more consistency and predictability. We have to trim down the list and identify the more strategic areas in the different sectors that need to be promoted. This process involves a lot of research and road maps.”

The DTI, through the Board of Investments, started to draw up the 2014 IPP in the third quarter of this year, gathering the road maps crafted by various industries. These road maps, Cristobal said, would be critical in identifying specific gaps in supply and value chains of industries, or where the government needs to attract or promote more investments and development.

He said the issuance of the 2014 IPP and its implementing rules and regulations could come out in the first quarter of next year. The 2013 IPP was issued only last month and the IRR is expected within the week.

Cristobal declined to identify the industries or activities that would no longer be part of the 2014 IPP.

The current IPP identified 13 “preferred activities:” agriculture/agribusiness and fishery; creative industries/knowledge-based services; shipbuilding; mass housing; iron and steel; energy; infrastructure; research and development; green projects; motor vehicles; strategic projects; hospital/medical services; and disaster prevention, and mitigation and recovery projects.

More crucial in the government’s efforts to streamline the incentives regime is the repeal or amendment of over 50 incentive-giving laws, some of which, in effect, grant perks in perpetuity.

Cristobal made the remark as he stressed that the IPP, despite calls for its abolition, could be the main instrument that would streamline and consolidate incentives.