Vital gov’t investment plan finally reaches Palace

After months of consultations and review, the 2011 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) has finally reached Malacañang and is now awaiting President Aquino’s signature.

In a roundtable discussion with the Inquirer Wednesday evening, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said that he had already signed the 2011 IPP, which his office then transmitted to the Palace this week.

The hotly contested provision on mass housing would just be discussed during the formulation of the implementing rules and regulations, he said, once the executive order finalizing the IPP had been signed.

Under the 2010 IPP, mass housing units with a value of P3 million and below are entitled to tax breaks: three years for those in the National Capital Region and four years for those outside the NCR.

For the 2011 IPP, however, the Board of Investments (BoI) proposed that the coverage be reduced to housing units valued at P2.5 million and below. This was staunchly opposed by groups such as the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association Inc., which wanted the P3-million limit retained.

The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council sided with the housing developers on the P3-million limit retention.

Earlier, the Department of Finance (DoF) had called for the elimination of the mass housing sector from the IPP. A compromise was eventually reached to keep the item on the list.

In an earlier interview, Vice President and HUDCC chairman Jejomar Binay said the government agency was grateful that mass housing was still included in the 2011 IPP as a priority sector.

“The only thing that’s still being discussed is the value. We don’t know yet what the decision will be,” Binay said.

As work on the 2011 IPP guidelines looms, Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Cristino Panlilio said the BoI would try to convince the Finance department to accept the proposed compromise ceiling of P2.5 million.

Panlilio had earlier said that the National Economic and Development Authority had actually accepted the P2.5-million mass housing cost cap that the BoI believed was just the appropriate amount for such projects to qualify for tax incentives under the IPP.

“Statistically, (P2.5 million) is the price that can be considered mass, affordable housing. It’s what can be considered by 80-90 percent of the working population to be affordable housing. It’s what we believe will benefit the mass to middle market,” Panlilio said.

He said the BoI would try to convince the DoF to accept this compromise limit.

“We’ll send our position to them, we’ll put it in writing. If they don’t agree, then we’ll give it to the [Presidential Management Staff] to handle,” Panlilio said.