PEZA Releases Additional Guidelines for the Registration of Existing RBEs in the IT-BPM Sector with the BOI

Pursuant to the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (“FIRB”) Resolution No. 017-22, registered business enterprises (“RBEs”) in the Information Technology – Business Processing Management (“IT-BPM”) sector were allowed to adopt a work-from-home arrangement not exceeding thirty percent (30%) of their total workforce up to 12 September 2022. This was further extended up to 31 December 2022 by virtue of FIRB Resolution No. 026-22. 

Along with the extension, RBEs which intended to adopt a work-from-home arrangement beyond the extended period were also given the option to transfer their registrations to the Board of Investments (“BOI”). In line with this, the Department of Trade and Industry (“DTI”) released guidelines to facilitate such transfer. To further guide the RBEs, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (“PEZA”) also promulgated Memorandum Circular (“MC”) No. 2022-067 and MC No. 2022-070 or the ‘Guidelines on the Registration with the BOI of Existing RBEs in the IT-BPM Sector under DTI MC No. 22-19.’

Under the PEZA MCs, RBEs are, in addition to the general procedure found in the DTI MC, to submit to PEZA on or before 16 December 2022, through itbpm.transfer@peza.gov.ph, the following documents:

• Request to Register with BOI Form signed by the highest ranking official of the RBE (Annex A of PEZA MC No. 2022-067);
• Scanned copies of its PEZA Certificate of Registration (“COR”) and Registration and Supplemental Agreements.

The RBEs must also be compliant with the terms and conditions of their registration with PEZA and are in good standing.

After submission, PEZA shall endorse the requests to the BOI. Upon issuance of the BOI COI, RBEs must furnish a copy of the same for annotation in their PEZA COR through obs@peza.gov.ph. Within thirty (30) days from issuance of the BOI COI, RBEs must also submit the following to PEZA:

• List of all equipment and/or other assets containing the following information: (i) those brought out of the IT Centers/Park and those that remain in the registered facility of the RBE; (ii) quantity; (iii) year of acquisition; (iv) acquisition costs; and (v) book value; and
• Total number of employees and number of employees under the work-from-home arrangement.

PEZA will continue to administer the fiscal incentives of the RBEs and the RBEs will continue to be under the administrative supervision and monitoring of PEZA. Non-fiscal incentives (i.e., PEZA Visa, automated importation, etc.) shall still be provided by PEZA to the RBEs registering with BOI.

The PEZA Rules and Regulations shall still apply on the operations of the transferee RBEs. For monitoring purposes, RBEs which register with BOI are still required to submit their monthly reports to PEZA in the Information Technology Sector – Report Compliance System. Finally, the RBEs are still required to maintain an office inside PEZA-registered IT Centers/Buildings. This requirement is mandatory and failure to comply shall result in the cancellation of its registration with PEZA and the BOI.

For more information, please find the full copies of the MCs and their annexes here and here.