MANILA – Business consultancy firm PwC Philippines said a growing number of foreign firms are in wait-and-see mode regarding their expansion plans, given the uncertainties brought about by the proposed second package of tax reforms.
“It’s actually when you talk to CEOs … It’s not that they are stopping all their plans, but their big plans, their big investments are a little bit on hold and they’re trying to wait and see,” PwC Philippines chairman and senior partner Alexander Cabrera said on the sidelines of the Good Governance Advocates and Practitioners of the Philippines Forum in Pasay City.
Cabrera declined to name which PwC clients are in a wait-and-see mode.
The company is consultant to several multinational companies, some of which are doing business in industrial parks operated by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).
Foreign companies are now taking into account the uncertainties surrounding the proposed Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities (TRABAHO).
The new set of tax reforms proposed by the Department of Finance (DOF) seeks to cut corporate income tax (CIT) rates from 30 percent to as low as 20 percent, while rationalizing fiscal incentives.
“It’s like a joke. When you say it at the wrong time, it’s not funny. You do a good initiative at a bad time, it won’t be good. It’s not now or never,” he said.
Cabrera said uncertainties are also stemming from ongoing talks on the government’s plan to shift to a federalist government which, he claimed, has disrupted political stability in the country.
“Combination of TRABAHO, combination of talks of federalism …” he said.
“You create political uncertainties, you will create economic uncertainties. Sanay sila sa different kinds of politics, but they wanted to see predictability. So, ano na ang gagawin?” Cabrera noted. (GMA News)
