Bicameral Committee passes the CREATE Act

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The Bicameral Conference Committee has approved the reconciled version of House Bill No. 4157 and Senate Bill 1357 of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE)  Act on 01 February 2021. Both Houses had respectively settled the disagreeing provisions of the act.  The ratified final version is now ready for the signature of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

The CREATE Act allows exporters and domestic industries to avail themselves between four (4) to seven (7) years of income tax holiday (ITH) and ten (10) years of special corporate income tax (SCIT). They may later pay the 5% gross income earned (GIE) for ten years.

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Bureau of Customs accords the five years validity period of the Product Evaluation Report

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The Bureau of Customs (BOC) accords the five years validity period of the Product Evaluation Report (PER) of exports conforming with the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) and all the other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).

This amended policy transpired after the exporters protested the issuance of AOCG Memo No. 67 2021 ‘Evaluation of Goods Applying for Certificate of Origin (CO)’ on 05 February 2021, which shortened the PER validity from five years to three years. BOC released a memorandum on 10 February 2021 in response to the exporter’s clamor to amend the said AOCG memo reverting the five-year validity period instead of three years.

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Shorter free storage period proposed in PPA’s policy revision

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The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has proposed revisions on their current rules on the commencement of the free storage period (FSP) and the start of the calculation of storage charges.

The proposal depicts shorter FSP for import cargoes, outbound-domestic cargoes, and cargoes entering any domestic port.

The existing five (5) day FSP rule for import cargoes starts after the last day that the last item of cargo is discharged from the vessel. While the proposal prescribes that FSP shall immediately commence on the actual day and time the import cargo is discharged from the ship.

Moreover, the current two (2) day FSP for the outbound-domestic cargo, which begins after the date of cargo entry, is proposed to start off immediately on the actual day and time the outbound domestic cargo is officially received at the port.

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