2 cement projects, 1 mass housing venture worth P 29B get incentives

The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) has approved the grant of tax incentives to a mass housing project and two cement manufacturing plants, all of which are proposed to be located outside Metro Manila and are worth a total of P29.4 billion, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

Under the recently passed Create law, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, projects that are worth at least P1 billion have to get the approval of the FIRB, which is currently chaired by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

Approved on Aug. 2, the biggest of these projects is a cement plant in Batangas, which cost about P24.9 billion.

The nearly P25-billion cement plant in Calatagan, Batangas, which the DOF said would include the installation of clinkering facilities, has been granted six years of income tax holiday (ITH) with five years of enhanced deductions and duty exemptions on importation.

The Batangas cement project would cost higher that other similar projects because it would involve the production of clinker, the most expensive component of cement manufacturing, according to Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo.

The project, to be implemented in two phases, would have capacity to produce 2.5 million metric tons of cement per year, said Finance Assistant Secretary and FIRB Secretariat Head Juvy Danofrata.

Meanwhile, a proposed cement manufacturing in Porac, Pampanga, that would cost P3.1 billion was given a 2-year ITH, five years of enhanced deductions and duty-free exemptions on importations.

Danofrata, citing data from the BOI, said the project in Pampanga was expected to save the country P866 million yearly in import expenses. This, she said, was because it would help meet the demand for cement in the infrastructure sector by producing the material locally using new cost-effective technologies. INQ