The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) has extended until Jan. 31, 2023 the deadline for the transfer of registration of Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) firms from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to the Board of Investments (BOI).

FIRB announced Thursday, Jan. 12 the deadline extension after only 40 percent of affected PEZA registered business enterprises (RBEs) were able to meet the original deadline of Dec. 31, 2022. There are still 640 RBEs that need to transfer their registration by submitting necessary requirements.

“We fully support our stakeholders in the IT-BPM sector and grant their request for more time to complete their transfer to the BOI,” said Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno. “The FIRB is committed to providing any form of assistance to effectively and expeditiously carry out the transfer of the concerned IT-BPM enterprises,” he also said.

The extension is provided under FIRB Resolution No. 033-22. Diokno is the chair of the FIRB.

Meantime, the DOF said will continue to support IT-BPM enterprises “by recognizing the need to adopt flexible work arrangements without adverse effects on the tax incentives they receive.”

In a statement, the DOF said on Sept. 14, 2022, the FIRB resolved the long-standing work-from-home (WFH) issue of the IT-BPM sector by accepting the WFH arrangement as the new business model of most RBEs.

“The resolution allows RBEs that have already completed their registration transfer with the BOI to adopt 100 percent WFH arrangement without losing incentives or violating Section 309 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended by the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act,” it said.

PEZA OIC Deputy Director General Tereso O. Panga said the extension is to give way to last minute filing of applications for paper transfer by its RBEs. “Whatever it takes to keep the competitiveness of our IT locators, we are all for it.”

Panga assures its ITBPM locators of a seamless paper transfer to the BOI. He also expects that the ease of doing business measures under the existing PEZA one stop facility will be extended to the transferees.

In addition, Panga said that if the national state of calamity will be extended this should also relax the rules to allow IT locators to avail of the same work from home (WFH) privileges to PEZA locators. This means, PEZA-registered enterprises need not transfer to the BOI.

Panga noted that hybrid workplace is the preferred arrangement by PEZA-IT locators. “We pray for the institutionalization of WFH, including amendment of Sec. 309 of CREATE Law where both BOI and PEZA RBEs will be put on an equal footing,” he said.