EMPLOYEES in information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) enterprises will now have to return to their offices after the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) turned down the industry’s request to extend the work-from-home (WFH) setup after March 2022.FIRB said denying the sector’s request is meant to stimulate the economic activities of the country which have been stalled for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.IT-BPM enterprises have only until March 31 to implement the WFH arrangement.“The WFH arrangement is only a time-bound temporary measure adopted during the surge of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given the increasing vaccination rate of Filipinos nationwide, we can now undertake safe measures for physical reporting of employees, including those working in the IT-BPM firms operating within ecozones and freeports,” said Finance Secretary and FIRB chairman Carlos Dominguez III during the FIRB meeting on Feb. 21.“The employees’ return to the office would provide more opportunities and pave the way for the recovery of local micro, small and medium enterprises that depend on IT-BPM employees for their livelihood,” he added.Last September, the FIRB released Resolution 19-21, which allows IT-BPM firms in economic zones to implement 90 percent WFH arrangements until March 31, 2022. Under this setup, the IT-BPM firms in economic zones can keep enjoying their tax incentives if at least 10 percent of their workers report in the office.The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) along with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority lobbied for the extension of the WFH arrangement until September this year.IBPAP president Jack Madrid said they continued to push for another extension “to allow members a longer runway to transition their operations because there are things that take time.”Madrid said the WFH setup has been beneficial for the sector so that even operating during the pandemic, the industry continued to be a strong economic pillar for the country. The WFH scheme, he noted, also helped the industry raise its productivity performance and retain its talent.“We support the need to fully reopen the economy. But as IT-BPM employees have an overwhelming preference for a balanced, hybrid work arrangement, we are working with our government partners to provide the industry a smooth transition to onsite operations towards a WFH/hybrid model in the longer term,” said Madrid in a statement sent to SunStar Cebu Wednesday, March 9.Meanwhile, the FIRB also disapproved the request for the lifting of the moratorium on ecozone development in Metro Manila.The board stood firm on the Duterte administration’s thrust to increase investments outside Metro Manila and emphasized that Administrative Order 18 still complements the government’s strategies and policies on rural development, aligned with the objectives of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Law.