Tax breaks sought for hybrid fuel cars

A RANKING official of Toyota Motor Philippines has pushed anew the granting of incentives to manufacturers and importers of alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrid units, to boost their massive adoption.

“We need to proliferate hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles not for the rich but for the masses like in the more developed countries. That’s because their government recognizes the contribution of hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles,” TMP vice chair Alfred V. Ty said in an interview last week.

“Incentives are needed because the technology costs more. If you don’t give incentives, like tax breaks, only the rich can afford these vehicles. We should provide such incentives [for the manufacture of hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles] because that’s where we are going,” Ty added.

The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines has been at the forefront in pushing the enactment into law of a bill that outlined fiscal and non-fiscal incentives that will make EV (electric vehicle) industry players based in the Philippines more competitive in the region.

Evap president Rommel T. Juan said the group expected investments in the sector to grow to about P5 billion in five years. This is expected to come from the aggressive expansion activities of existing EV players in the country, such as Bemac Electric Transportation Philippines Inc.

Juan said the group was also targeting to position the Philippines as a highly attractive hub for local and global players in the electric vehicle industry. This is expected to be achieved with partnerships and collaborations with similar industry associations in other countries in the region.

The Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand (Evat), for one, has sought to tap EVAP for potential collaborations, on the back of the Philippines’ strong thrust to promote the use of these environment friendly units for both public and private transport.

The call for incentives for hybrid vehicle makers was made by TMP as its president, Satori Suzuki, told the Business Inquirer in an interview that the company would spend between P2 billion and P4 billion under its proposed commitment to the government’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program.

Suzuki said the planned investment would be allocated “mainly for additional parts localization (such as body parts and resin parts) to meet the requirement under the CARS program.” He, however, declined to reveal the specific investment figure pending the approval of TMP’s application for CARS with the Board of Investments, saying it would definitely be “more than a billion pesos but less than P5 billion.”

TMP expects the BOI to announce next month the final list of participants in the CARS Program, which will provide as much as P27 billion worth of incentives for three vehicle assemblers or three models. Only two companies, however, have submitted an application to participate in the program before the deadline.