THE MUCH-AWAITED groundbreaking for the new terminal at Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) will not go through in January due to delays in the relocation of Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) Cebu facility, the head of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center said on Monday.
MANILA, Philippines – The government rejected all bids for the 91-day and 364-day Treasury bills (T-bills) due to the unreasonably high interest rates sought by banks. The Bureau of the Treasury, however, sold P4.7 billion worth of six-month debt papers, or a little more than half of the planned P8-billion issuance. The yield on the 182-day bills went up by five percentage points to 1.82 percent. Tenders amounted to P8.96 billion. National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon said the rates sought by banks were “way way above where they should be.” Had it accepted the bids, the rate of the 91-day bills would have risen by 89 percentage points from 1.42 percent to 2.31 percent. Tenders reached only P6 billion, short of the P8-billion planned offering. The rate for the 364-debt paper would have risen by 21.9 percentage points to 2.059 percent. Bids amounted to P7.2 billion, 20 percent more than the P6 billion on offer. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “No reason for rates to drastically rise. They’re asking for much bigger increase in rates,” De Leon said. The government has programmed to sell P135 billion worth of debt instruments in the first quarter of the year as part of a fund-raising initiative to augment its expenditure requirements. About 86 percent of the government’s borrowing requirements will come from the domestic market while the balance of 14 percent will come from international lenders. Foreign borrowings are done through the sale of sovereign bonds in the international Read More …
MANILA, Philippines – The Senate will push for the passage of the Cabotage Law and competition policy which are seen to help promote the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) this year. According to Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, who chairs the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, he is committed to work on the passage of the two bills this year. Aquino said the inclusion of the two bills in the President’s priority legislative agenda this year is a welcome development as both are seen to promote the growth o MSMEs. Senate Bill (SB) No. 2364, filed by Aquino, seeks to amend Section 1009 of the Presidential Decree No. 1464, otherwise known as the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, in response to the President’s call to relax the country’s policies on cabotage. This, as it is cheaper to send products from other countries to the Philippines than to ship goods within the country. For instance the cost of shipping a 20-foot equivalent unit container from Kaohsiung in Taiwan to Cagayan de Oro is $360 or P16,000 only, while the cost of shipping the same cargo from Manila to Cagayan de Oro will take $1,120 or almost P50,000. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 If the proposed measure is enacted into law, foreign ships would be allowed to call in multiple ports, which would in effect lower the logistics costs. SB No. 2282 or the Fair Competition Act of 2014, meanwhile, aims Read More …
MANILA, Philippines – More households borrowed from local banks as of the third quarter of 2014 to pay for their home and car purchases, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data showed. Consumer loans rose 21 percent to P849.7 billion as of end-September last year from P702.6 billion in the same period in 2013. The latest level is also six percent higher than the P804.1 billion recorded in end-June. The increase was driven by a 25-percent jump in residential real estate loans to P382.5 billion from P306.4 billion and a 20-percent climb in auto loans to P217.4 billion from P181.1 billion. BSP data also showed credit card receivables went up three percent to P156.5 billion as of end-September from P151.9 billion in the same period in 2013, while other consumer loans slid 28 percent to P45.7 billion from P63.1 billion. Salary loans or those granted to individuals on the basis of their regular salary, pension, or other compensation amounted to P47.6 billion in end-September, central bank data also showed. The BSP only started monitoring salary loans as a separate category under consumer loans in end-June last year. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Consumer loans have been rising in the last few years, supporting domestic consumption which remain as the major driver of the Philippine economy. In end-September last year, household loans made up 16.68 percent of the banks’ total loan portfolio. Non-performing consumer loans, meanwhile, amounted to P42 billion in end-September, about five percent of the total household Read More …
Early this year, Executive Order (EO) No. 68-A, Series of 2014, amending EO No. 68, Series of 2012 was issued to simplify the terms of the VAT tax credit certificate (TCC) monetization program, and thereby promote conducive business environment and raise the business credibility of the government. Pursuant to EO No. 68-A, the Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) issued Joint Circular No. 2-2014 providing for the mechanism for qualified VAT-registered persons to receive the cash equivalent of their outstanding VAT TCCs. Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 82-2014 circularizes the full text of the said joint circular. The joint circular provides that VAT TCCs for which the BIR has issued the corresponding notice of payment schedule (NPS) and VAT drawback TCCs approved for monetization by the BOC, are qualified for monetization under the joint circular. Similarly, all other VAT TCCs outstanding as of Dec. 31, 2012 not covered for monetization and VAT TCCs issued after Dec. 31, 2012, are qualified for cash conversion, notwithstanding the existing administrative regulations, guidelines or conditions prohibiting or restricting the cash conversion of VAT TCCs. Specifically, the joint circular provides the procedures in which holders of VAT TCCs with BIR-issued NPS may present the NPS to the BIR for payment on or before the maturity dates indicated thereon. Within 45 calendar days from presentation of the NPS, the BIR should directly pay the total face value of the NPS, Read More …
DAVAO CITY — The Regional Development Council of Davao is pushing for a separate contract award for the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in this city instead of bundling the project with other airports under the public-private partnership (PPP) program.
THE TRANSPORTATION department wants a January signing for an agreement covering the building of a second common station near SM City North EDSA, connecting Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7) and Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT-1), in a move it hopes will help resolve a contract dispute with SM Prime Holdings, Inc.
IN A PREVIOUS column (http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=the-oecd-action-plan-on-base-erosion-and-profit-shifting&id=99561), we wrote about the general framework of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative, why addressing BEPS is a key priority for many governments across the globe, and the 15-point BEPS Action Plan drafted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Action Plan aims to ensure that profits are taxed where economic activities generating the profits are performed and where value is created. In this column, we tackle the OECD Report on Action 1, which addresses the tax challenges of the digital economy.
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is looking at replicating the bus system reform in Seoul, South Korea and initially implementing it in C-5 and Ortigas as part of efforts to address heavy traffic along major thoroughfares particularly along EDSA. Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the agency is getting inputs from Dr. Gyengchul Kim who conducted the Seoul Bus Reform Program. “Dr. Kim, father of bus reform program in Seoul, is now with us and we are carefully listening to his advice on the bus system,” he said. According to Abaya, the agency is initially looking at implementing the reform at C-5 and the Ortigas area. “In C-5, we’ll do a high capacity bus system as a pilot to see how that develops. We’ll also do an experiment in Ortigas,” Abaya said. Under the planned reform, the government would pay bus companies in the route wherein the bus would have to leave on time whether or not there are passengers. “This will change the bus service because in this way the government will pay the bus company. The bus has a schedule and the driver will get paid a uniform rate so there is no incentive to drive recklessly. That’s the same program Seoul undertook,” Abaya said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The DOTC is looking at implementing the project in tandem with the bus rapid transit (BRT) system being undertaken in Cebu City. The DOTC is in the process of Read More …
MANILA, Philippines – Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is beefing up its budget for capital expenditures this year by $75 million (P3.375 billion at P45:$1) to bankroll its overseas and domestic expansion projects. ICTSI assistant corporate secretary Benjamin Gorospe III said the company’s board of directors approved the appropriation of a portion of ICTSI’s existing retained earnings. The port giant has yet to announce its capital expenditures for 2015 but has allocated $310 million for 2014 to expand its flagship Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and bankroll its overseas expansion particularly in Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. ICTSI is spending P3 billion to expand MICT and to put up an inland container depot in Laguna. ICTSI has allocated P1.6 billion to bankroll the first phase of the expansion project of MICT through the development of six hectares of new yard space. The listed port operator has completed Phase 1 of the company’s berth seven-yard development by deploying four hectares of new yard space to serve as empty container depot that could store up to 4,300 containers in moderate wind conditions. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Furthermore, another two hectares would be competed by yearend bringing to 6,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) the total capacity of the new empty container depot. ICTSI said the new yard is part of the company’s expansion project for the MICT aimed at immediately addressing growing volumes at the Port of Manila. The expansion Read More …