Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26) — An urgent bill touted by the economic team to provide immediate relief to businesses amid the pandemic will lapse into law on March 27, a Trade official said.
“It’s going to lapse actually tomorrow,” Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said Friday during the 2nd Philippines-Singapore Business and Investment Summit hosted by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Although tagged as an urgent measure in 2020, it appeared President Rodrigo Duterte left the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act unsigned on his desk for a month.
CREATE, which is part of the government’s tax reform program, will cut the corporate income tax rate to 25% from the current 30%. It will apply retroactively from July 2020, meaning companies will save on annual tax payments.
For small firms, it’s down to 20% of earnings.
“With CREATE, we are leaving money in the private sector’s hands to revitalize their businesses,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in his speech. “We trust that enterprises will re-invest their tax savings from CREATE back into the economy to spur domestic activity and create more jobs for our people.”
Local and foreign business groups have long lobbied for the passage of the proposed law, saying it would give “instant relief” amid the country’s worst recession that forced lower sales volumes, worker layoffs, and business closures.
Once a bill reaches Malacañang, the President may either sign the law, veto it in part or in full, or let it come into force by itself after 30 days. The bill was approved by both houses of Congress last year and reconciled by a bicameral conference panel last February.
