Philippines aims to finalize tax treaty with Oman this year

Finance Secretary Frederick Go (Photo courtesy of EJAP)

The Philippines seeks to conclude negotiations for a double taxation agreement (DTA) with Oman within the year, but the two governments are still working out a negotiation schedule, a finance official said last week.

Department of Finance (DOF) assistant secretary for revenue operations group Euvimil Nina Asuncion told reporters on the sidelines of the ProGRESS bill stakeholder briefing on Wednesday that the department wants to finalize the deal this year but is still coordinating with the Oman government.

“On timelines, we want to finalize, conclude negotiations for the DTA [within the year], but we are still in the scheduling stage with the Oman government,” Asuncion said.

Asuncion said the DOF has already secured special negotiating authorities but still needs President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s approval before proceeding with talks.

Once the President gives his approval, the DOF hopes to hold one round of negotiations with Oman, Asuncion said, adding that the number of rounds will ultimately depend on both delegations.

“What we usually do is we have pre-negotiation meetings, we’re able to thresh out already items prior to the actual negotiation. So hopefully, in that one round, we just confirm the items that we previously agreed upon, and then do the more technical discussion on the items that are hanging from that pre-negotiation,” Asuncion said.

Aside from Oman, the DOF is also targeting to conclude DTA negotiations with Singapore this year while making progress on agreements with other countries.

“We are going to have our second round of negotiations with Singapore this September. We’re asking our ASEAN member states also, Lao PDR and Malaysia, if we could have the second round within the year but we have not confirmed yet. Luxembourg is also another country that we’re aiming to have negotiations within the year, at least the first round,” Asuncion said. — Thony Rose Lesaca