Some taxpayers have reported receiving Benchmarking Notices from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). As in most cases, any letter or notice from the BIR is received with great trepidation and uncertainty. Generally, taxpayers should keep calm and not be unnecessarily anxious about the benchmarking notice. Industry benchmarking is not a new program. This was originally instituted in 2006 through the issuance of Revenue Memorandum Order No. (RMO) 4-2006. However, it was not fully implemented at that time. Six year after, RMO 5-2012 was released to prescribe the revised guidelines and procedures in the conduct of industry performance benchmarking but on limited scale.
AMID unsolicited proposals to establish new and modern airports in Bulacan and Sangley Point in Cavite, the government’s chief economic planner still views Clark International Airport as the “superior” option to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
THE Department of Energy (DoE) has accepted six project proposals that seek to use water from Laguna de Bay to produce power using pumped-storage hydroelectricity.
The level of interconnection in today’s digital ecosystem has created tremendous opportunities for organizations to work together by extending capabilities and sharing data. However, having an interwoven ecosystem — of service providers, contact centers, distributors, licensees, joint ventures and other third parties — has created a much larger flank allowing attackers to skirt around security measures by targeting less secure connections among third parties. For example, recent security breaches that affected Target and Yahoo prove how dangerous unsecured third parties can be and that an organization can be blamed for security vulnerabilities it had little to do with.
THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Transportation (DOTr) topped the list of budget increases in the 2018 national budget to help sustain the government’s infrastructure program, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Friday.
THE government’s financing program for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is expected to receive more funding next year, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said, making available up to P2 billion as a direct alternative to usurious “5-6” usurious lending schemes.
THE PHILIPPINE Ports Authority (PPA) is revising upward its cargo volume forecast this year to “double-digit” growth after reviewing the data for the first five months of the year.
THE CASH utilization rate of government agencies slowed at the midyear mark, though the Budget department said it is seeing indications of a spending pickup.
NATIONAL Transmission Corp. (TransCo) has approached multilateral lending institutions Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and World Bank for a loan of between P15 billion and P20 billion to pay renewable energy developers that have yet to receive their share of the feed-in-tariff (FiT) allowance collected from electricity consumers.
ELEVEN exporters, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand, have expressed interest to participate in the government auction for the tax-free importation of 250,000 tons of rice, with the National Food Authority (NFA) still inviting more potential bidders.