Informal Sector

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is losing roughly 35 percent in potential revenues because of the existence of the so-called underground economy and other tax evaders, a ranking Department of Finance official said over the weekend.

NEARLY all registered businesses in the country are classified as small and medium enterprises. They account for half of employment and represent around 60 percent of the country’s export firms.

As President Arroyo waxed proudly yesterday about the similarity of her supposed cash transfer program with a scheme being implemented in Brazil, where she is on an official visit, a financial assistance scheme for displaced workers in the Philppines has been put off after providing loans to 100 individuals.

View the file in PDF format

MANILA, Philippines – If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to connect your business to the Web, look no further than PLDT SME Nation’s myDSL Biz service. It provides small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with fast Internet access, and quickly gets their network up and running with up to four PCs and one laptop bundled…

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is extending a 20 percent tax discount for persons with disabilities through the issuance of Revenue Regulation 1-2009.

Let me thank your associate editor, Ms. Marichu Villanueva for mentioning in her column (“Resolve,” 01/02/09) the farm-friendly measures that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is endorsing for congressional approval this year. As she had noted, one of the measures that the DA is supporting is new legislation amending the Agri-Agra Law, also known as…

The economic crisis may have created challenging times for many families, but as a resourceful people, we Filipinos can still find many accessible, viable opportunities that will help provide that much-needed supplemental income. Here are some practical ways to earn extra cash and ride out the present credit crunch.

The government and the private sector will set up a countryside development fund to help those who will be displaced as a result of the slowdown in the global economy, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said.