Most IPAs still rely on subsidies, DoF says

According to estimates by the Department of Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), only two investment promotion agencies (IPAs) are considered self-sufficient in receiving government assistance, with the rest receiving P58 billion budget support between 2017 and 2021. Money (DoF).

In a statement Monday, the DoF identified two subsidiary-free entities, namely the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority (PIA), which operate an economic zone in northern Mindanao.

Subsidies were used by IPAs for investment and maintenance of assets and other operating expenses (MOOE).

“It is only right that (IPA) they maximize the budget support they receive from the national government,” said Finance Secretary and FIRB Chairman Carlos G. Dominguez III.

He added that their efforts should go towards attracting foreign investment, “especially in this time of epidemic, which will create jobs and supercharge our economy.”

The DoF said the IPAs that received budget support were Batan’s Freeport Area Authority (AFAB), Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO), Board of Investments (BoI), Base Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) Group, Kagayan Economic (Economic). CEZA), the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (ZCSEZA).

Between 2017 and 2021, the BCDA Group received P7.47 billion, of which 83% was used for MOOE.

Funding from the government complements what each IPA can properly do in the form of “fees and other charges from their locators and registered business organizations (RBEs),” the DoF said.

Finance Assistant Secretary Juvi C. Danofrata, who heads the FIRB Secretariat, said at a recent DOF meeting that the AFAB has allocated the entire amount of its budget for capital expenditure or purchase of new assets, while SBMA and TIEZA have allocated their entire MOOE.

In 2021, IPAs received P5.07 billion in budget support from the government – Tobias Jared Thomas