The Department of Finance (DOF) wants investment promotion agencies (IPAs) to maximize the P58-billion budgetary support they got from the national government by luring more investments into the country.
In a statement, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said on Monday, April 18, that national government has always been supportive of its IPAs in their operations and investment promotion efforts. Dominguez said as data from the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) Secretariat showed a whopping P58 billion in budgetary support was given to IPAs in the last five years.
In 2021 alone, the funds received by the IPAs from the government amounted to about P5.07 billion, Dominguez pointed out.
“It is only right that they maximize the budgetary support they get from the national government,” Dominguez said.
They should “translate their efforts into attracting more economically stimulating and productive foreign investments, especially in this time of the pandemic, that would create jobs and supercharge our economy,” the DOF chief said.
Based on the FIRB, IPAs that received budget support were the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO), the Board of Investments (BOI), and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) Group.
Others were the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (ZCSEZA).
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and the PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority (PIA) were not included in the list of budgetary support recipients as the two agencies are already self-sufficient and do not receive budgetary support from the national government, DOF said.
FIRB Secretariat Head Juvy Danofrata said AFAB allocated 100 percent of its budget to capital outlays or the purchase of new assets, while SBMA and TIEZA allocated 100 percent of their budget to maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
Between 2017 and 2021, the BCDA Group, which consists of the Clark Development Corp., the John Hay Management Corp., and the Poro Point Management Corp., have received the largest budgetary support at P7.47 billion combined, with 83 percent of its budget allocated to the group’s MOOE.
This is in addition to the authority of the IPAs to exact fees and other charges from their locators and registered business enterprises (RBEs).