Policy reforms to address concerns on the ease of doing business in the country, taxation and infrastructure topped the list of recommendations that local businessmen submitted to President Duterte at the conclusion of the 42nd Philippine Business Conference Thursday.
The proposals, aimed at helping create a more conducive investment climate in the country, stemmed from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s list of issues dubbed “Giant Steps.” This stands for good governance, infrastructure, agriculture, new era of manufacturing, tourism (Giant), Science, technology, education and people skills (Steps).
On the ease of doing business, the PCCI proposed the harmonization of policies and procedures; automation of business processes and licensing systems and reduction in the number of days to process permits and licenses to three days or less across all agencies and local government units.
For taxation, the PCCI issued a resolution supporting the proposed comprehensive tax reform initiatives of the Department of Finance and the committees on ways and means of both the House of Representatives and the Senate that would lower the rates of personal and corporate income taxes to 25 percent; adjust tax brackets to inflation; broaden value added tax base, and simplify tax system.
The PCCI also urged the government to consider a special simplified tax regime for micro and small enterprises in the tax reform packages. Lower tax rate, simplified tax base determination and simplified filing and payment processes to encourage the micro and small segments of businesses to register and pay taxes with least cost and inconvenience, the PCCI said.
On information and communication technology (ICT), the PCCI urged the Senate and the House of Representatives to amend Republic Act 7295 or the Public Telecommunications Policy of the Philippines to create open access in telecommunication.
“Open access is the separation of the physical infrastructure from service provisioning. This means identifying the various segments in the infrastructure and opening them up to more players, ” it said.
Concerning transportation, the business community wanted to transfer the accreditation and supervision of international cargo forwarding and logistics from the Philippine Shippers Bureau (PSB) to the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina). For energy and power, the PCCI wanted the government to issue an executive order “supplementing the Electric Power Industry Restructuring Act (Epira) and empowering the Department of Energy to take a strong leadership role and accountability in achieving the objectives of the Epira which, in Section 37, has relegated the role of DOE to mere development planning and monitoring instead of leadership and implementation.”
PCCI members also sought to increase the budget of the Department of Agriculture; intensify interventions on high value crops development program, including agri-fisheries, and accelerate support for rice production program within two years.