MANILA: Philippines Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has announced big-ticket projects of “national significance” under the flagship public-private partnership (PPP) program would be exempted from realty taxes in a bid to boost infrastructure development.public-private partnership programs.
“For the country to build on its recent economic gains and to ensure the proper investment environment in our country, the private sector must be further encouraged to make investments through a modernized and enhanced PPP law,” Angara, who chairs the Senate ways and means committee, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Angara pointed out that since the huge investments for infrastructure have gone beyond the government’s means, the private sector must increasingly be enjoined to participate in building vital infrastructure. The senator filed last week Senate Bill (SB) No. 2672 or the PPP Act, which he said “provides for more liberalized government regulations and procedures to better address the needs and bureaucratic concerns of PPP investors.”
To make these huge projects more lucrative, the measure proposes tax breaks for investors. Once SB 2672 is passed into law, “[a]ll real properties which are directly used for [PPP projects of national significance] shall be exempt from any and all real property taxes, while all local taxes, fees and charges imposed by a province, city or municipality on the project proponent shall not exceed 50 percent of 1 percent of gross sales or receipts of the preceding calendar year,” according to Angara.
