BOI grants perks to P14-billion projects

MANILA, Philippines - Eleven projects, including the acquisition of planes by Gokongwei-owned Cebu Air Inc., with a combined cost of P14 billion received tax breaks from the Board of Investments (BOI).

In a statement, the BOI reported that it has given incentives to 11 projects including the P7.5 billion investment of Cebu Pacific Airlines and the P4.35 billion Batangas plant of Nestle Philippines. Four renewable energy (RE) projects with a combined worth of P1.5 billion were also given perks. The other projects were for mining and mass housing.

BOI has recently approved the application of Cebu Air Inc. for its acquisition and operation of four brand new Airbus A320 aircrafts. Cebu Air, which owns and operates Cebu Pacific Airlines, will invest P7.5 billion in the project which will have a manpower requirement of 783 employees. The aircrafts are scheduled to be operational in January 2011.

The A320 is a short to medium range commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus with a maximum passenger capacity of 179 seats. The aircrafts will be imported from France and will be delivered between the last quarter of 2010 and January 2011. This will operate on both local and foreign air space.

The application of Nestle Philippines Inc. for its non-dairy coffee creamer production facility at First Philippine Industrial Park in Sto.Tomas, Batangas likewise received incentives from the government.

The P4.35-billion project involves the construction of a “Greenfield” factory on a 270,000 square meter land. The production of non-dairy coffee creamer is entirely different from its existing business operation in terms of final product and raw materials.

At present, the company imports all of its non-dairy coffee creamer requirements from Thailand . As soon as the facility is operational, Nestlé will no longer import non-dairy coffee creamer since the Batangas factory will be able to supply the local requirements of Nestlé. Commercial operation is slated to begin in June 2012 involving a manpower requirement of 478 personnel.