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MANILA -- The Philippines is considering an across the board cut in corporate income tax and a stimulus of up to P160 billion to save the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

The corporate income tax will be cut to 25 percent from 30 percent "immediately" based on the proposal, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua told an online forum

"For new investors, we will actively seek them out and ask them what they would need as incentives to contribute to job creation in the Philippines," Chua said.

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Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez told the same forum that he was proposing a stimulus package of P130 billion or P160 billion.
The government is repackaging the second tranche of tax reforms aimed at companies, as part of a post-pandemic recovery plan, Chua said.

The economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the first quarter, the first contraction in 22 years as the lockdown that started on March 17 shut businesses and forced people to stay at home. The government revised its growth forecast for 2020 to a contraction of 2 to 3.4 percent.

The economy lost up to 1.5 million jobs permanently or temporarily because of the pandemic, Dominguez said on May 12, as he unveiled a 5-point plan to restart the economy.