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| File photo of San Nicolas receiving the Most Business-Friendly municipality award. |
By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff Reporter
San
Nicolas, Ilocos Norte—In a move to further
attract investors to this booming town, the Sangguniang Bayan here has revised
the municipality’s 2004 Investment and Incentive Code (IIC).
San Nicolas councilor Atty.
Reynaldo Corpuz, author of the measure, explained that the amendments address
the recommendations given by the Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI) on
investment priority areas.
Atty. Corpuz said the P100
million capitalization for a corporation and P50 million for single
proprietorship are too high. To resolve this, they called a series of public
hearings involving concerned stakeholders. After the public hearings, the
council decided to adjust the capitalization to P50 million and P25 million,
respectively.
They also created the San
Nicolas Investment and Incentive Board (SNIIB).
Businesses that can avail of
the incentive in the ordinance were modified.
Based on the DTI investment
priority areas, retailers, distributors and marketing industries such as
supermarkets, department stores and vehicle showrooms are not included. Atty.
Corpuz however recommended an innovation that would make these industries
qualify through the number of employees’ requirement.
The amended code states that
all business establishments not included in the investment priority areas must
employ 70 percent of their total manpower but not less than 30 actual residents
from this municipality in cases of individual/single proprietorship; and not
less than 60 actual residents in cases of corporation, joint ventures and other
juridical entities in order to avail of the IIC based on the number of
employment system.
Atty. Corpuz added that the grant incentives are in the form of fiscal discounts
and non-fiscal incentives wherein under the fiscal incentive code, registered
enterprise shall have a graduated tax incentives of four years after the
issuance of certificate of registration.
For the first year of
operation, the applicable provisions of the revenue code shall be imposed while
for the second and third years of operation, a tax rate of 20% of 1% and 27.5%
of the total gross sales shall be imposed.
A tax rate of 35% of the 1%
total gross sales will be imposed for the fourth and fifth years of operation.
The non-fiscal incentives
include the free promotional activities by the municipal government through
advertisements in the local vicinities like streamers etc. during fiestas and
other special occasions of the municipality.
All qualified establishments
will also be given priority assistance in terms of business licensing
especially those who are not from San Nicolas. They can also tap the assistance
of the San Nicolas Investment Promotion Center to be the ones to process the
business permits and licenses.
Atty. Corpuz further stressed
that the IIC will all apply to old and new business establishments in the
municipality.
However, the existing
businesses must add the capitalization of P25 million or additional work force
as it will be considered as expansions.
It was also noted that this
incentive code shall only be applied to those law-abiding businesses and not to
those who are delinquent tax payers.
San Nicolas Vice Mayor Dr.
Alfredo P. Valdez Jr. meanwhile said that the amended IIC will be able to
attract and invite more investors here.
He stressed that this proves
that San Nicolas is really a business-friendly municipality living up to the
Most Business-Friendly Municipality award it won last year.
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