Tax breaks urged to promote job security

Participants attending a day-long summit in Malacañang reached yesterday a national consensus on measures to support government efforts in promoting job security and helping Filipino workers cope with the global economic crisis. 

In a Joint Communique, government officials, employers, workers and other sectors agreed to have a common solution against job losses through tax breaks for firms, reduction in the costs of business licenses and permits, and relaxation of criteria for extension of income tax holidays.

“Providing tax breaks to distressed firms would help industry preserve jobs while at the same time providing these firms the needed capital for them to surmount the difficulties brought about by the crisis, thereby boosting efforts to sustain demand and the economy as a whole,” Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said.

During the summit, the government announced the creation of 1,224,655 emergency jobs here and abroad for displaced workers through its pump-priming projects. The jobs include those in call centers and those that will be generated from buoyant industries like food manufacturing, tourism and healthcare.

It also allocated a new standby fund of nearly R4 billion, most of it from the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), for livelihood projects to provide income to affected workers.

Industry leaders and the labor sector threw their support to the safety nets identified by the government. They agreed to cooperate with concerned agencies in the delivery of much-needed services for the displaced.

They pledged support for efforts to reduce the cost of doing business; improve marketing of products; extend a comprehensive package of assistance to emerging industries and micro, small, and medium enterprises; curb smuggling; provide credit enhancement to borrowers; recommend the representation of exporters and overseas service providers to the Philippine ExportImport Credit Board; pursue policies toward providing tax breaks and incentives to business; and, support initiatives to promote corporate social responsibility.

On providing safety nets for workers, they also committed support for government’s livelihood projects amounting to more than R5 billion; allocation of 1.5 percent of 2009 budget for emergency employment programs; creation of 80,000 to 100,000 jobs in food manufacturing, tourism, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare industry; recruitment to fill up 400,000 overseas jobs; creation of one-stop worker assistance centers in cities and municipalities as well as economic zones; public- private partnerships to facilitate job placement and training of affected workers; assistance in education of affected workers and their dependents; access of affected workers and their dependents to health services; assistance to affected workers with financial obligations; nationwide campaign against illegal recruitment; and promotion of decent work and preservation of jobs.

They also called on Congress to support all these commitments by passing a bill on the government’s economic stimulus package.”We commit to monitor the progress and implementation of these commitments through regular consultative meetings among all signatories to this communiqué,” the document read.

A secretariat would be created to monitor these commitments.

A representative of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), however, suggested that a Tripartite Task Force should be created to closely monitor the implementation of the policy responses crafted at the job summit. “We are hopeful that these mitigating measures against the employment crunch will be implemented. We don’t want this Communique put to waste,” TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said in an interview.

Some 200 representatives from business, labor and church groups, the academe, government, and non-government organizations attended the summit organized by the DoLE and the Department of Trade and Industry. –RAYMUND F. ANTONIO, Manila Bulletin