BOI mulls tollway firm’s tax holiday request

The Board of Investments (BOI) is still studying the request of the Manila Tollways Corp. (MNTC) to adjust the reckoning period for its income tax holiday (ITH) availment from the first quarter of this year to the first quarter of 2004.

MNTC made the request due to the delay of its project timetable for the rehabilitation of the North Luzon Expressway.

The MNTC had won the right to rehabilitate, expand and operate an additional 84 kilometers of the NLEX way back in 1998.

Because the Manila North Luzon Tollway Project was nominated as one of the nation’s flagship infrastructure projects under the Philippines 2000 program and is essential to the development of the Northern Luzon area, it was also able to register with the BOI and secure fiscal incentives.

MNTC was unable to start work on the expansion project immediately due to financing problems that were also tied to right-of-way issues.

Under the new construction schedule MNTC submitted to the BOI, phase I of rehabilitation work from Balintawak to Tabang would have started from October this year to end in December 2003.

Phase 2, involving the stretch from Balintawak to San Fernando, would also have started in October this year, while phase 3, covering the portion from San Fernando to Sta Ines, would also have started in October this year.

MNTC is 60 percent owned by the Lopez family’s First Philippine Infrastructure Development, while the remaining 40 percent is equally shared between the Philippine National Construction Corp., and French Egis Projects S.A.