Congress to focus on economic measures to attract investors – Drilon

Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Congress will focus on economic measures in the following months, in a bid to attract more investors into the country, Senate President Franklin Drilon said Sunday.

Drilon, in a statement, said he met with House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and they agreed to put emphasis on bills that “will maximize the country’s potential business strengths, and ensure the nation’s macroeconomic and fiscal sustainability and enhance the overall Philippine climate for greater business competition and foreign investments.”

The Senate President reasoned that more investments will create more jobs and economic opportunities for Filipinos.

Among the measures that will soon be tackled by the two chambers of Congress are the proposed Consolidated Investments and Incentives Code of the Philippines and the Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act.

“There is a need to reassess and harmonize our numerous fiscal and non-fiscal incentives and subsidies to foreign and local investors to avoid overlapping and redundant incentives to cut unnecessary revenue loss,” Drilon said.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) is also up for amendment “to find ways to address the woes of our people with regard to the high electricity rates, which the EPIRA was supposed to address.”

Congress will also explore the possibility of implementing higher excise taxes on mining, similar to what other countries have done, without dissuading additional investments in the sector.

Meanwhile, Drilon said the Build-Operate-Transfer law will be further fine-tuned to align with the government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

“Similarly, we must amend the Cabotage law to allow foreign-registered vessels to engage in coastwide trade in the country, thereby opening the market to competition, bringing down transportation costs by sea, and enabling the country to fully utilize supply chain products,” he said.

The Senate President promised “massive reforms” for finance-related government institutions.

“We are looking at restructuring important institutions to halt the economic damage from rampant money laundering, smuggling and other financial crimes in the country,” Drilon said.

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