Pasay City – A self-sustaining, resource-generating, and top investment promotion agency (IPA), the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) reported that for the year 2021, the agency remitted PHP 898,471,582.39 million dividends to the national government last 12 April 2022 through the Bureau of Treasury.
PEZA Director General Charito B. Plaza highlighted the Agency’s achievement stating, “PEZA continues to remit high dividends brought by our existing and new investments, projects, and expansions from 2017 to 2021. Amidst the pandemic, operations in our ecozones are unhampered and we continue to remit 50% of our net income as dividends to the national government.”
According to the PEZA Chief, “We had a steady increase in dividends from 2017 to 2020. While the pandemic was more felt in 2021, we were able to remit more than PHP 898 million for last year. With the increase in remitted dividends for 2021, I am confident that PEZA is headed towards bouncing back this present year.”
Figures of PEZA’s dividends and CIT
From 2017 to 2021 under the Duterte administration, PEZA has already remitted PHP 5,611,028,918 billion of dividends to the national government, which is 8.05% higher than the PHP 5,193,111,137 billion dividends the Agency has remitted from 1996 to 2016.
In total from 1996 to 2021, PEZA remitted PHP 10,804,140,055 billion of dividends for 26 years.
Meanwhile, on the remitted Corporate Income Tax (CIT), PEZA Chief Plaza shared, “In just five years under the Duterte administration, we have exceeded half of PEZA’s remitted CIT from 1996 to 2016 pre-Duterte’s term.
From PHP 4,962,747,570 billion covering 1996-2016, PEZA has remitted PHP 2,889,464,497 billion from 2017 to 2021. This is part of the total of PHP 7,852,212,067 billion of CIT from 1996 to 2021.”
Plaza noted that “aside from the dividends of PHP 810,263,800.18 million remitted in 2020, PEZA also shared PHP 1.190 billion to the national government for its COVID-19 response which was the requested contributions from Government-Owned and Controlled Operations (GOCCs) for that year. This totaled to PHP 2 billion in dividends in 2020.”
Overall, PEZA’s payments to the national government from 1996 to 2021 were composed of dividends and CIT amounted to PHP 18,656,352,122 billion.
The PEZA Director General proudly mentioned that “As PEZA does not receive any subsidy from the government, we really have to be more aggressive and innovative in attracting new investments, creating employment, and generating exports. This is one of our ways of contributing to the goals and legacy of the Duterte administration especially in reopening the economy and rise from the effects of the pandemic.”
Recently, the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) of the Department of Finance (DOF) shared that while investment promotion agencies (IPAs) received PHP 58 billion of budgetary support from the national government in the last five years, "PEZA and the PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority received no budgetary support at all. The two IPAs were listed as self-sufficient through the fees and other charges they demand from their locators.”
Last year, PEZA reported a 14.016% increase in export income of US$ 63.061 billion from US$ 55.309 billion in 2020. Employment inside the ecozones also increased by 13.908% having 1,782,913 million jobs in 2021 from more than 1.5 million jobs two years ago.
Sources of revenue
PEZA’s sources of revenue come from the agency’s service income such as to permit and inspection fees, processing fees, sewerage/garbage, fines, and transshipment. Another source is business income like service concession revenue, rent and lease income, and utility system fees among others.
Under the leadership of Director General “Ching” Plaza, more public economic zones will be established in every region in the country to utilize the millions of hectares of idle public lands into different types of economic zones to attract different types of industries, complete the supply chain and spread investments, jobs, and livelihood.
Establishing ecozones in every region
Likewise, the private sector, LGUs, and national government agencies managing public lands, as well as the indigenous peoples who own the ancestral domain lands, are all invited by PEZA to convert their land holdings into an economic zone.
According to Plaza, “Economic zones have been proven to enrich and empower the LGU hosts, which are now highly classified and enjoy high income from their share of the taxes of investor industries and ecozone developers.”
“Thus, the aggressive marketing and promotion done by PEZA to global investor industries and ecozone developers aim to attain total development in the countryside and nationwide. This is anchored to PEZA’s goal of fully industrializing the country and of building the nation to become self-reliant, self-sustaining, resource generating, and a contributor to the global supply chain,” added the PEZA Chief.
PEZA’s goal is to make the Philippines maximize its production and manufacturing capability and become a competitive, digitalized, and export-driven economy. #
