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COMPANIES that have enjoyed or will be availing
themselves of government incentives will soon be forced
to list in the local bourse with the expected enactment
of the Fiscal Incentives Rationalization Bill.
This is
because the rationalization bill will say in explicit
terms that the public listing of firms registered with
the Board of Investments (BOI) as mandated by the
Omnibus Incentives Code (Executive Order 226) is
mandatory and not merely directional as some groups
claim, according to BOI Managing Member Elmer
Hernandez.
The BOI,
Trade Secretary Peter Favila and the Philippine Stock
Exchange Inc. (PSEi) had been in a dilemma on how they
could make the BOI-registered companies offer at least
10 percent of their firms to the public, as EO 226
mandates.
This is
after lawyers of these companies said the public-listing
provision of EO 226 is not mandatory but merely directs
the BOI to ask those that availed themselves of
incentives, including up to 8 years of income-tax
holidays and duty-free importation of equipment and raw
materials, to offer shares to the public within 10 years
from registration.
Hernandez said that with the passage of the incentives
rationalization bill, the BOI-registered firms can no
longer use this excuse to avoid public listing.
Among
the big companies that have obtained government
incentives and have been earning well since then, but
remain unlisted, are Smart Communications and Pilipinas
Shell.
Also,
Hernandez clarified the exemption provided by EO 226 on
the listing of local firms whose mother companies are
already listed abroad. He said these companies are not
exempt since EO 226 is only talking of local listing.
Hernandez made the clarification after a BOI-registered
firm asked that it be excused from listing in the PSE
since it is already listed abroad.
He added
that the companies being told to list are those that are
registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange
Commission. “We are now making this clarification based
on the request of a company for exemption.”
The BOI
had released a list of 85 companies that should be
listed because they enjoyed incentives and are qualified
to be in the PSE roster based on qualifications. |
