Work-from-home arrangement extended for ecozone BPO firms

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has allowed the IT-BPM industry to continue earning most of its revenues from work done at home until September next year as the pandemic reshapes even life in the office.

Peza-registered members of the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry can continue to source up to 90 percent of their revenues from work-from-home arrangements, Peza said in a circular.

According to Memorandum Circular No. 2020-049, the Peza board approved the resolution “in response to requests from Peza ecozone IT enterprises,” a copy of the circular on the Peza website read.

This will remain effective until Sept. 12, 2021, when the state of national calamity in the country is scheduled to end.

“With sound economic and legal policies, we must continue to do our best to keep these companies in our country despite the present uncertainties,” Peza Director General Charito Plaza said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The IT-BPM industry was one of the few industries declared essential during the start of the pandemic and were therefore allowed to continue operating.

But even then, it still had to shoulder unexpected costs such as paying for the accommodation of their workers especially at the early days of the quarantine.

Rey Untal, president and CEO of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), previously said that this took a “huge toll as the industry had to take on extraordinary unplanned costs.”

IBPAP estimated that the lockdown cost them around P120 billion in the past seven to eight months. While Peza allowed COVID-19-related costs to be treated as a deductible expense in a project’s gross income, not everyone will experience relief.

This only applies to companies that have the 5-percent gross income earned tax, which locators pay in lieu of local and national taxes.