CPC gets tax incentives from the Philippines

Taiwan's state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油, CPC) has received official notice from the Philippine government on the granting of tax incentives to a joint investment project currently planned by the CPC, Itochu of Japan and PPDC of the Philippines to build a naphtha cracker plant in the Philippines, a CPC official told Bridge News yesterday. PPDC is a subsidiary of the state-run Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC).

"Under the tax incentive package, the project will be granted tax exemptions for the first six years and tax deductions thereafter," said the official, who declined to go into further detail.

He added the tax grants are very attractive, and he expects the issue of whether the project will be realized to be finalized by the end of 1999.

If it does go ahead, the project, which is known as the Philippine Olefin Corp, is to be located in an industrial estate in Bataan and is slated to have an annual output of 600,000 tons of ethylene and 310,000 tons of propylene initially, with the ultimate output to be raised to 800,000 tons and 400,000 tons respectively, mainly to supply local needs, he said.

The project -- which is now expected to be completed in mid-2004 -- will be the first of its kind in the Philippines.