DTI mulls easing export requirements

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is mulling over a plan to ease business requirements for exporters registered with its incentive-giving agencies.

During the government’s yearend economic briefing, Trade Secretary Peter Favila on Wednesday said Trade department and the Export Development Council are reviewing the Export Development Act of 1994 to determine if provisions of this law are still relevant amid a globalized economy.

Favila later told reporters that among possible revisions to the law may be a more flexible requirement for export firms that have qualified for incentives from the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

At present, BOI-registered exporters are required to ship out 70 percent of their production, while PEZA locators must export their entire production.

The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) had petitioned the BOI to suspend the 70-percent export requirement starting this year until next year to support the sector’s recovery.

Philexport had also called for an “Export Recovery List” in the 2010 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), which identifies which industries could enjoy tax and other perks for the year.

Groups such as Philexport have been calling on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to ease up on its efforts to boost the peso, as a stronger currency makes the country’s exports more expensive, thus less competitive, abroad.

The BSP, however, has brushed aside such suggestions, pointing instead to the need to boost the country’s infrastructure and trim red tape.

Favila, who is a member of the BSP’s Monetary Board, said Trade department would also push for the creation of an “Office for Industrial Development” under the department. The new body would come up with “coherent industrial policies,” he said, adding that this proposed agency would develop a “whole range” of domestic industries. –Ben Arnold O. De Vera, Manila Times