THE Philippine food service sector is asking the government for tax holidays, additional 20-percent indoor dine-in capacity for the vaccinated population, and other relief measures as restaurants continue to face challenges amid the pandemic.
During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Restaurant Owners of the Philippines (RestoPH) President Eric Teng said they have reached out to legislators to push an initiative granting the restaurateurs tax holidays.
“We are asking for tax holidays for our F&B [food and beverage] members so that we can reinvest in our own business and hire people back,” he said.
He lamented that the food service sector is among the worst-hit industries in the pandemic, apart from the airlines and tourism sector.
“For 2020, our transaction has declined by 60 percent and the outlet number for the food service sector has been down by 6 percent,” he said, noting that further uncertainties brought about by the lockdown measures and surge in Covid-19 cases are likely to continue threatening the industry.
The restaurant owners group also sought the discounts availed of by the persons with disabilities and senior citizens to be deemed income tax-deductible as these are being fully absorbed by the industry.
RestoPH, meanwhile, asked for “unhindered” market access for the farmers and food producers. Teng said the group worked with the Department of Agriculture to set up a program to allow farmers to sell their produce directly to the market.
“We are requesting for tax holidays for our landlords so that they themselves continue rent reprieve and rent support to their tenants,” he added.
Teng hopes the requests will be granted by the third quarter.
The restaurants, he said, have focused on lockdown management as a response amid the uncertainties instead of lockdown prevention.
The RestoPH head said the group held dialogues with several mayors in the National Capital Region (NCR) and landlords to discuss ways on “how we can bring more confidence and traffic back to the restaurants.”
“We can only grow and recover if all of us are still functional. In our view, Covid can be a permanent part of life and we have to survive in that Covid situation,” he explained.
Teng pointed out that it is not helpful “when [at the] first sign of trouble, [restaurants] are always single-handedly pointed [to] as a problem.”
“Yet as we have asked for more data—and very few have given us—it has still to be proven that restaurants are one of the causes of the spread of the virus,” he explained.
Still, the group welcomed the current policy of 20-percent capacity for indoor dine-in capacity under the general community quarantine (GCQ), saying it can help curb the spread of the virus. Outdoor dining, meanwhile, is allowed at 50-percent capacity.
The NCR—along with Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal and Cavite—is under GCQ with heightened restrictions from May 15 to May 31.
More indoor dine-in capacity
While restaurant owners understand the 20-percent capacity limit, Teng asked the government for another 20-percent indoor dine-in allowance for the vaccinated population.
“[W]e are hoping is that, if government limits us to 20 percent, to grant us another 20 percent for the vaccinated. We are not taking it away from anyone whether they are vaccinated or not, we just want additional capacity for the vaccinated so that we can hire back our people with increased capacity,” he said.
Citing situations in other countries, Teng said high vaccination rates allow restaurants to go back to normal operations. RestoPH wants the Department of Health to “adapt this finding” as the country rolls out its vaccination program.
With this, Teng is hoping for the implementation of Bakuna Badge, a vaccination pass, by July or when more Filipinos are inoculated with Covid-19 doses.
“The vaccine pass that we are asking for is not for immediate application but will also wait for certain period of time for implementation. But we are preparing for that,” he explained.
He clarified that vaccine passes are not a discriminatory measure. “Our version of vaccine pass is not a door to keep people out. It’s a key to bring people in,” Teng said.
The initiative, he said, is meant to allow vaccinated senior citizens to go to restaurants.
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