The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) expects a softening up by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) on its position on the work-from-home (WFH) policy for IT-business process management (IT-BPMs) firms registered with the agency. PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga said that its plea for FIRB to allow as much as 30 percent WFH for employees by IT-BPM firms without losing government tax incentives will be bolstered by the position paper of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The DOLE supports the PEZA’s 30:70 WFH-onsite hybrid work ratio citing the Telecommuting Act, which allows remote work for non-production workers. Last year, the FIRB ruled that all IT-BPMs registered with PEZA must return to their approved economic zone/IT Park, IT Building location or lose their tax incentives. Since most of these firms prefer to continue operating under a hybrid work arrangement, these PEZA-registered firms were allowed to transfer their registration to the Board of Investments (BOI), which charter allows the registration of firms and the grant of tax incentives even if they locate outside of an economic zone. Although the BOI-PEZA arrangement was largely a paper transfer only, Panga said many of these firms would like to return to PEZA. As of January this year, PEZA said they were able to endorse the transfer of  453 registered business firms to the BOI. These registered business firms comprise nearly 42 percent of the 1,088 registered business firms under the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector. The deadline for the transfer of registration was until January this year. It could be recalled that PEZA temporarily allowed its IT-BPM firms to operate 30:70 work ratio until September last year due to the pandemic without loss of incentives to ensure the safety of their employees and ensure continued operations. As the pandemic subsided, the FIRB said these IT-BPMs must return to their approved ecozone location or lose their incentives.