CAGAYAN de Oro City Councilor George Goking believed there is much to be optimistic about the city’s economic outlook despite the pandemic as the government has been “doing its utmost” to help businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), recover from this protracted global health and economic crises.

Goking pointed out that even with the ongoing pandemic, the government still managed to stick to its goal of reforming the tax system to make it simpler, fairer and more efficient as exemplified by the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act.

“CREATE was created by the Congress in response to the pandemic as a fiscal relief,” said Goking.

It’s all about tax relief, he said adding that this law is the largest economic stimulus program for businesses in the country’s recent history as it lowers the corporate income tax (CIT) rates of MSMEs from 30 percent to 20 percent, while the rest of the corporations pay only 25 percent.

“We should actively pushed the CREATE because at this time we need a strong private sector to sustain our economic recovery,” Goking said.

This Create Law have helped them maintain or even increase their profitability and their ability to cope with the pandemic.

“It provides immediate relief to our MSMEs with a 5 or 10 percentage point reduction in the regular corporate income tax (CIT) rate,” he said.

“Clearly, the city government is pro-business when it comes to fixing our tax system by reducing the tax rates of our workers and corporations,” Goking said adding that these reforms will bring better business conditions in the near term.

He added, to let in the government’s initiative on CREATE, as it will also modernize governance; accelerate the rollout of the infrastructure program; and continue with the market-friendly reforms attractive to investments.

As for the private sector, he stressed that for businesses to flourish, they must continue to innovate, reinvent their old business models, and adopt “green” and new digital technologies to maximize the impact of the Duterte administration’s pro-business initiatives.

“Do this not only to cope with the challenges of the pandemic. Do this to prepare their businesses for the new economy that is to come,” said Goking, chair of the City Council committees on trade and commerce and on ways and means, during the first Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) virtual town hall meeting for local government units (LGUs).

The FIRB, is the interagency government body given the authority by the Philippine law to grant tax incentives to registered business enterprises.

Like the CREATE Law, this FIRB is expected to change the landscape of the tax incentive system as part of the country’s economic recovery program, he stressed.

This will generate more employment opportunities and improve the overall quality of life for the people of the Cagayan de Oro, he said.

Goking said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be given more support in terms of tax incentives and other forms of help for their businesses to recover.

He added that economic recovery is hard to restore considering that there are many factors needing careful study. (Ben Balce)