The once busy corner of Escario Street and Gorordo Avenue is just an empty street a week after the ECQ was implemented in Cebu City. | Alven Marie A. Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) welcomed the plans of the national government to reduce corporate income tax starting June.
In a statement signed by its president, Felix Taguiam, the CCCI expressed full support of the proposal of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) on introducing a corporate income tax of 25 percent.
The group said the strategy formulated by the nation’s socio-economic and planning agency ‘will make it easier for the economy to bounce back from the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic’.
“In this most trying of times, the reform in the corporate tax system through the PH-PROGRESO (Philippine Program for Recovery with Equity and Solidarity) – its goal of making Philippine recovery with ‘Equity and Solidarity’ is a welcoming development for us in the business sector,” CCCI said.
“It is high time for strategies geared towards the nation’s recovery, where the priority will be on income and job restoration,” they added.
With more than 1,000 members, CCCI is Cebu’s largest business-oriented group, and second nationwide, next to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Presently, the Philippines has a corporate income tax of 30 percent, considered as Southeast Asia’s highest rate.
Acting NEDA Director and Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua unveiled their plans for corporate income tax to slide to 25 percent through an online youth workshop last May 14.
The nation’s economic team will be pitching three programs before Congress under PH-PROGRESO.
READ MORE: Economic team dangles 25 percent corporate tax in COVID-19 recovery package
CCCI, for their part, said they would be looking forward for the recovery program to help not only micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) but also to attract foreign investors.
“As such, lowering the corporate income tax rate will not only help entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises recover and thrive, but it will also attract foreign investors in search of resilient, high-growth-potential economies like ours, when the quarantine is lifted,” they added.
Cebu City, the largest city in terms of economic and commercial activities in Central Visayas, has been placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for more than two months.
The city’s ECQ has not only led for a suspension in public transportation but also resulted in suspensions of several business establishments due to restricted mobility. /dbs