AGI expects to remit P12B to gov’t

Alliance Global Group Inc. and its companies expect to contribute over P12 billion to government coffers this year in the form of taxes, import duties, franchise fees and other remittances to the state and state-run corporations and agencies.

Remittances will come from members of the Andrew Tan-led Alliance Global group that include Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., Emperador Distillers Inc., Golden Arches Development Corp., Megaworld Corp., Empire East Land Holdings Inc., Suntrust Properties Inc. and the Tan-owned Consolidated Distillers of the Far East Inc., AGI announced on Wednesday.

The estimated amount includes the group’s income tax, net value added tax, excise tax, custom duties, franchise fees and other remittances to the national government and government-owned corporations and agencies.

“Our remittances to the government show that we are committed not only to the highest standards of corporate governance and citizenship but also to nation building,” AGl chief finance officer Dina Inting said in a disclosure.

AGI, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, is also increasing its investments in the country’s fast-growing tourism and business process outsourcing office industries.

Over the next five years, AGI expects to have built 5,500 rooms in 16 hotels in Metro Manila and strategic provincial areas.

It noted that its hotel projects were centrally located in master-planned tourism estates.

“Alliance Global is set to become the largest tourism player in the country with its projects generating up to one million tourists each year,” said Inting.

Alliance Global is also ramping up its office development efforts through property arm Megaworld Corp., whose upcoming BPO offices and campus buildings were expected to offer more than 371,000 square meters of space by 2014 and help generate about 70,000 new jobs over the next three years.

Megaworld has an inventory of 384,000 square meters of BPO office space, with 78,000 sqm more to be completed by yearend.

Megaworld estimated that its pioneering BPO and IT park Eastwood City in Quezon City was now home to a 40,000-strong workforce, including BPO players servicing a global market.

Its second cyber park in McKinley Hill, Taguig City, hosts more than 15,000 workers.