By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved the grant of income tax holiday to Petron Corporation’s P80-billion investments for a new condensing processing project, which will raise the company’s production capacity by 55 percent.   Petron was granted non-pioneer incentives under the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act, which grants tax perks to investors. As a non-pioneer project, the San Miguel Corporation’s subsidiary is entitled to a 5-year income tax holiday, which the company can start availing once it starts commercial operation in February 2024. Aside from the five-year income tax holiday, Petron will also enjoy duty-free importation of its capital equipment. Based on its application with the BOI, Petron will require new processing units and support facilities such as new getty and tanks including 6 cooling storage tanks to produce additional capacities for LPG, diesel, naphtha and petrochemical products. The new condensing processing plant will be a stand-alone facility located inside Petron’s oil refinery complex in Limay. In the first quarter this year, Petron’s consolidated revenues went up 21 percent to P129 billion from P106 billion in the same period in 2017. During the period, Petron’s 180,000 barrel-per-day Bataan refinery hit its highest ever utilization rate at 99 percent or near full capacity thus the need to increase its capacity by about 100,000 bopd.