MANILA - Japanese investors welcome a bill seeking to lower corporate income tax rates, the Department of Finance said Monday.

The DOF quoted Japanese Ambassador Koshikawa Kazuhiko saying that the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act will soon end the unpredictability on the future tax and incentives scheme of the country.

Koshikawa told this to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez during a courtesy call, the DOF added.

Earlier passed in the third and final reading of the Senate, CREATE will lower the corporate income tax (CIT) rate to 20 percent for firms earning P5 million and below. Other companies, including foreign firms with higher earnings, will pay 25 percent.

At 30 percent, the Philippines' current CIT is the highest in Southeast Asia.

The CREATE bill will have to be consolidated and approved by the House of Representatives when they resume session next year before the president could sign it into law.

Koshikawa also told the DOF that Japanese firms are currently exploring ways to realign their supply chains to countries like the Philippines.

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