Philippine call centres win battle to make remote work permanent

Excerpt from ft.com

The Philippines’ call centres and other business process outsourcing companies can keep their tax incentives and allow their employees to work from home, the country’s finance secretary has said, settling an issue that had been hanging over the economically important sector.

The nearly $30bn industry has been lobbying for a permanent work-at-home set-up, which was implemented during Covid-19 lockdowns and is now preferred by most of the sector’s 1.4mn employees. But an investment regime under which many of the BPO companies operate requires them to have workers on site to enjoy fiscal perks.

“The tax incentives will continue, [and] they [BPOs] can opt to do it from home,” Benjamin Diokno, finance secretary, told a senate budget hearing on September 15, responding to a query from lawmakers on the issue.

The Fiscal Incentives Review Board, which Diokno chairs, met on September 14 and decided that BPO companies registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority can transfer their investment registration to the Board of Investments, which does not require on-site workers for companies to keep their incentives.