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Notice of discrepancy: Is there a difference?

In September, the BIR issued two revenue regulations related to tax assessments. The first one is on the Voluntary Assessment and Payment Program (VAPP), allowing taxpayers to make voluntary payments and be entitled to immunity from or cancellation of an ongoing audit.

The second is what I would like to discuss in this article — Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 22-2020 — on the due process requirement in the issuance of a deficiency tax assessment. It is an amendment to the regulations covering the tax audit process, specifically Section 3 of RR No. 12-1999, which was likewise earlier amended by RR No. 18-2013 and RR No. 7-2018. The major change is on the BIR’s issuance of a Notice of Discrepancy (NoD) instead of a Notice for Informal Conference (NIC).

An NIC is a written notice issued by the BIR informing the taxpayer of the preliminary findings and discrepancies found during an audit. It also contains an invitation to schedule a conference with the revenue officers, where the taxpayer is allowed to explain his side and submit supporting documents to the examiner. RR No. 7-2018 provides that the Informal Conference shall in no case extend beyond 30 days from receipt of the notice.

With the issuance of RR No. 22-2020, the taxpayer must then be informed through an NoD instead of an NIC.  Let’s try to distinguish the two.

Based on the revenue officer’s submitted initial report of investigation, the taxpayer must be informed in writing of the discrepancy or discrepancies in the payment of internal revenue taxes, as a preliminary step to the Discussion of Discrepancy.

Comparable with the NIC, the NoD allows the taxpayer to present and explain his side on the discrepancies found. Based on Annex A of RR 22-2020, the taxpayer has five days from receipt of the NoD to present and explain his side. The NoD shortened the period for the initial discussion/conference since the NIC typically gave the taxpayer around 10 to 15 days to respond. Nonetheless, should the taxpayer need more time to present other documents in response to the NoD, he may submit them after the discussion not later than 30 days after receipt of the NoD.

Similar to the NIC, the taxpayer’s failure to appear on the scheduled date, without prior notice to the BIR, will be construed as a waiver of the taxpayer’s right to a Discussion of Discrepancy. Consequently, the taxpayer is deemed to have no objections to the findings in the NoD. The failure of the taxpayer to reconcile and present valid documentary support against the noted discrepancies will result in a Preliminary Assessment Notice (PAN). Also, in both notices, if the taxpayer remains liable for deficiency taxes after presenting his side, and fails to pay the deficiency taxes or disagrees with the findings, the investigating office is to endorse the case for issuance of a deficiency tax assessment.

Again, there is no significant difference between the NIC and NoD in this aspect.

So, where does the distinction lie?

The difference is in the number of days the BIR office concerned has to endorse the case for the issuance of a deficiency tax assessment. For the NIC, the investigating office (or Revenue District Office) endorses the case to the Assessment Division of the Revenue Regional Office or the Commissioner or his duly authorized representative at the National Office within seven days from the conclusion of the Informal Conference. On the other hand, in the case of the NoD, the investigating office endorses the case to the reviewing office within 10 days from the conclusion of the discussion. Failure on the part of revenue officers to comply with the period renders them liable to penalty. Given the minimal difference in the number of days, it doesn’t seem to be an important distinction either — at least nothing that could spell much difference from a taxpayer’s point of view.

Overall, the NoD runs parallel with the NIC in terms of the timeline and initial process taxpayers undergo during a tax assessment. It seems that the NIC or Notice for Informal Conference was just renamed as Notice of Discrepancy, perhaps to emphasize the discrepancy rather than the conference. Save for the difference in name and minimal difference in the number of days for endorsement of the revenue examiner’s report, the NoD will likely implemented the same way as the NIC.

Although there is no substantial difference between the two notices, the good thing is, taxpayers still retain their procedural right to due process. Their right to be heard, through the explanations and supporting documents that they offer, should protect them against arbitrary and invalid deficiency tax assessment.

RR No. 22-2020 takes effect 15 days following the date of its publication on Sept. 17. Hence, starting Oct. 2, taxpayers under audit should not be surprised if they receive the NoD instead of the NIC. With differences so minor, however, will anyone even notice?

The views or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Isla Lipana & Co. The content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for specific advice.

 

Christian D. Grimaldo is a Senior Consultant at the Client Accounting Services group of Isla Lipana & Co., the Philippine member firm of the PwC network.

+63 (2) 8845-2728

christian.d.grimaldo@pwc.com

Future-proofing energy security

The Department of Energy (DoE) says it will no longer give permits for the construction of new coal-fired power plants. And, perhaps signaling preference for more renewable energy projects in the future, energy officials are also now allowing foreign investors to fully own big geothermal plant projects in the country.

Energy officials have noted the need for a “more flexible” power supply mix. The aim is to build “a more sustainable power system that will be resilient in the face of structural changes in demand and will be flexible enough to accommodate the entry of new, cleaner, and indigenous technological innovations,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi told a virtual conference on Tuesday.

The ongoing shift away from “traditional” energy sources like coal and oil is perhaps likewise indicated by the recent decision of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. to shut down its oil refinery in Batangas. Meanwhile, Petron Corp. says it is also considering eventually closing its refinery in Bataan. And when it does, the Philippines will become mainly an importer of gasoline and diesel.

Secretary Cusi points to the goal of “sustainable growth” as the main driver for transitioning from fossil fuel-based energy like coal and oil to “cleaner energy sources.” The ban on coal, energy officials say, will be in effect until there is a significant increase in demand for power, and prevailing supply will be insufficient. In short, the ban is not forever.

The “temporary ban” or the moratorium on new approvals has several consequences, unintended or otherwise. One, it favors those who are already invested in coal and are efficiently and profitably operating coal plants, and have access to cheap coal. The ban poses a barrier or a limitation to entry for those who intend to compete in this field in the future.

Two, it may place on the backburner all planned but still-unpermitted coal projects and forces energy investors to look for alternatives. Those with capital, but not the technology to pursue “cleaner” energy projects, will be prompted to either divest, diversify, or venture with clean-energy investors. This indirectly pushes capital towards renewable projects in the pipeline.

Three, the ban favors those already invested in renewables, even those operating at not-so-efficient or not-so-profitable levels. By putting an end to investments, even temporarily, on coal energy, then existing players can be given temporary relief from the drop in energy demand because of COVID-19. But this also puts them in a position to sell or supply more, and thus achieve optimization or profitability, as demand rises in the future.

Four, the ban, in a way, protects and favors existing players, including coal-fired plants, if it has the twin effect of deterring further competition from coal — even temporarily — and, paving the way for a longer gestation period for new “clean energy” projects to materialize. If power supply will be indirectly capped meantime, existing players can cut losses or better recoup investments as soon as demand rises again.

Note that the ban on endorsing new coal-fired power plants will reportedly not affect those already given prior endorsements. In Luzon alone, there are reportedly 3,436 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired power projects already committed. Then, we have another 135 MW in Visayas, and another 420 MW in Mindanao. The “one we need to sort out,” according to an Energy official, covers about 10,000 MW of “indicative” coal-fired power plant projects across the country.

It is also unclear to me where the pursuit of cleaner energy puts the “nuclear” initiative. And given pronouncements previously that tend to support the consideration of the nuclear option, I am uncertain now whether this is still something that is going to be pursued. In this line, it will be very interesting how the government’s 20-year Philippine Energy Plan will look like.

As for allowing foreigners to fully own large-scale geothermal exploration, development, and utilization projects, or those requiring an initial investment cost of about $50 million or more, this signals a couple of things: that there is not enough capital in the country interested in such projects; or, that there is not enough technical expertise; or, both; or, that there is foreign group interested to come in but only if they can fully own and control the venture.

Frankly, it makes no difference to me if foreigners are allowed 100% ownership of large-scale renewable energy projects. The risks associated with such I deem relatively low for us. After all, it is not as if foreign investors can simply pack up the big power projects and repatriate them lock, stock, and barrel. Neither can they “pilfer” local production and then send them home.

And it is highly unlikely for foreign military agents or saboteurs to invest at least $50 million in a local energy project just to get the chance to “sabotage” our energy security in the future. It will be simpler and cheaper for them to just fund a foreign military team in the future to infiltrate and bomb existing power installations in the Philippines.

It is a different story if foreigners destructively mined our minerals and just sent raw ore abroad; or foreign poachers harvested fish from our seas; or foreign farmers are allowed to own and use our land to grow food mainly for their use. Foreigners producing solar, geothermal, or hydropower or natural gas power in the country cannot “steal” and take home what they produce.

Also, at this point, solar is said to be at its cheapest in terms of installation and cost of production worldwide. This is abundant energy at reasonable cost, and produced in a way that is renewable and sustainable. This situation benefits both people and the environment, as long as we also consider the recycling of waste generated by the replacement of old panels.

The writing is on the wall even for fossil fuels. And I think Shell and Petron know this. Land travel and air travel are currently down, thus also the demand for their fossil fuel. But with newer hybrid technology and electric cars coming out, industries and consumers are also looking for cheaper and more energy-efficient ways to run factories and homes, and to move cargo and people from one point to another. Many may opt to shift away from gasoline and diesel.

Reducing power industry demand particularly for fossil fuel like bunker and coal further insulates us from external factors like supply bottlenecks and geopolitics that impact on the prices of imported fuel. Shifting to renewables and electric alternatives might actually make oil refineries in the country irrelevant, eventually.

I believe the Energy department is on the right track. While government policy calibrations will always have industry winners and industry losers, overall, the winner should be the consumer and the country. But even power and fuel are products that need to be sold at a profit. Lower energy and fuel prices benefit consumers and producers, but this should not be at the expense of those producing them nor the environment. I believe clean energy is a win-win for both.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

The loneliness of the long-distance employee

THE Great Work From Home Experiment of 2020 has gone on for nearly eight months, and preliminary results are coming in. Overall, surveys suggest that most of us like it most of the time, except for one thing: We feel lonely. “Camaraderie” is the No. 1 thing people look forward to about an eventual return to the office. “Loneliness” is often at the top of the list of downsides to remote work.

Feeling lonesome is not only a side effect of working from home. Our social interactions outside work have also been curtailed. Normally, a teleworker can liven up her day with coffee-shop meetings or dinners with friends. Not during a pandemic. Nor are we working remotely entirely by choice right now. Many are banished.

If you’re an extrovert, a manager, someone who loves their job, or someone with particularly wonderful coworkers, you probably feel the weight of loneliness especially heavily at the moment, says Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at the business school INSEAD and author of a recent Harvard Business Review article, “In Praise of the Office.”

We should remember that this isn’t a universal experience. “There’s a whole bunch of people who felt oppressed, miserable, silenced, invisible at the office,” Petriglieri says. “And if you ask them, I don’t think they say, ‘Oh, I feel so lonely.’” Those of us feeling lonely are more likely to be the lucky ones — the ones who fit into the company culture and get to be our authentic, best selves at work.

Those who hold a modicum of power over other people may be especially afflicted. Managers and leaders get affirmation from having their teams around them; it’s a tangible reminder of their status. Leading remotely thus might not be as rewarding as the real thing. At the same time, managers feel no less pressure to deliver for their own bosses. And as Jane Austen once wrote, “to flatter and follow others without being flattered and followed in turn is but a state of half enjoyment.” Behind the arch language is a human truth: Everyone needs to feel valued. For some, that occurs more easily in the office.

Some of us might also feel lonely for their past selves who used to stride purposely off the train in the morning, dressed in work clothes. Maybe we didn’t always like being that person, but after an absence she is missed.

Time away from colleagues might also give them a rosy glow. It’s easy to forget a coworker’s annoying heavy sighs or insistence on microwaving fish.

With virus cases on the rise, especially in Europe and the US, it seems unlikely that many people will be heading back to the office soon. But there are ways to make the winter bearable. Just look to the example of gig workers, who are officeless by definition. Research that Petriglieri has conducted with Susan Ashford and Amy Wrzesniewski has found that the people who are happiest having an independent career spend the most time building connections: to people, a routine, a sense of purpose, and a workspace.

The thing about the office, Petriglieri says, is that it offers those four connections as a bundle. “And as with any bundle, it wasn’t perfect, right?” he asks. But it was convenient. Creating connections independently takes more effort. A casual chat via video call takes some planning.

Creating a poor facsimile of the office — perhaps by lining up a day of back-to-back Zoom calls — isn’t the way to get through this isolated time. That will only remind us of all that we’re missing. Paradoxically, a better way forward might be to accept that work relationships, as well as our relationship to work itself, are different now.

“What’s the difference between loneliness and solitude?” Petriglieri asks, before answering his own question. “One is a state of deprivation, and the other is a state of fulfillment.” He’s not suggesting we paint a happy face over our mixed feelings about this time. But it is a good reminder that being alone doesn’t have to be lonely.

The pandemic may have erased our ability to run into one another at the coffee machine, but it’s also provided more insight into our coworkers’ personal lives — their piles of laundry, their keyboard-obsessed cats, their kids. That’s a pandemic reality to embrace now, and one day carry with us back to the office.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Trump energy policies and the US elections

Next week will be the US Presidential elections and people ask if President Donald Trump has encouraged more economic activities and dynamism than his predecessor, the Obama-Biden administration with eight years in power.

There are many metrics to help answer this but for this piece, I will limit the metrics to the overall GDP performance and key energy policies of the Trump administration. The chosen years are 2008, the end of the Bush Jr. administration as baseline; 2012, the end of Obama-Biden term 1; 2016, end of Obama-Biden term 2; and 2019, year three of Trump.

For “country” I chose the two largest economies of North America, Europe, and Asia. Then I added the three largest ASEAN countries in population — Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam — which have a combined population of about 477 million, big, similar to the population of the US plus Russia.

For coal energy consumption, one Exajoule is equivalent to 23.88 million tons oil equivalent (mtoe), or 277.8 terawatt-hours (TWH). Data is from the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) database October 2020, and BP Statistical Review of World Energy (SRWE) database June 2020.

In GDP expansion, it appears that Trump has elicited more business dynamism than his predecessor and US economic expansion was much faster than the other five biggest economies of three continents except China. In coal use, the anti-coal policies succeeded in all developed countries in the list but not in China. Indonesia and Vietnam also jacked up their coal use much faster than the Philippines (see Table 1).


Fracking and modern extraction of oil and gas has greatly expanded US production of these two commodities. While US production of oil was fast under Obama-Biden, it was much faster under Trump.

In natural gas production, measured in billion cubic feet (bcf) per day, the production rate under Trump was 3x under the Obama-Biden second term. The US has become the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, though not yet the largest exporter because of its high oil-gas domestic consumption (see Table 2).


Table 2 also shows that the “Trump is Russia puppet” narrative is a hoax from the beginning. Russia’s main exports, nearly 50% of total exports, are oil, gas and coal, not bombs, missiles and jet fighters.

Trump already campaigned since 2015 that if he wins, he would raise the US’ oil, gas and coal production, meaning directly competing with Russia and adversely affecting big Russian businesses including Putin allies. And world prices of these three fossil fuels have generally stabilized at low prices in the past three years, thanks to bigger US supply especially under Trump.

The “net zero” CO2 emission goals of many country leaders recently are more sound bites and rhetorical, not real. All the major oil and gas producers have ramped up their production, or at least maintained the level more than a decade ago, shown in table 2. Meaning global demand for fossil fuels remains high.

So on the question if Trump has encouraged more economic activities and dynamism in the US than his predecessor, the answer is Yes.

Meanwhile, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) has launched its Oplan e-Skwela campaign, in which company laptops which are no longer used for market operations plus employees’ gadgets donations were collected and given to students of the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City.

On the indefinite lockdown which has walloped many businesses and killed many jobs as indicated in huge decline in electricity demand, the Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines (CDC PH) continues its call that the lockdown, whether MECQ, GCQ, MGCQ, should be lifted. Allow the healthy to freely work and travel while protecting the elderly and immune-compromised, and use proven prophylaxis to frontline personnel and people with early symptoms and avoid hospitalization.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Hope you liked the music

ONE THING the pandemic and social distancing has forced on everyone is the use of digital communication. On-line experiences now cover all aspects of life, including previous face-to-face activities such as education and medical diagnosis, as well as banking, meetings, and shopping. Now, even children are encouraged to be glued to the screen for their lessons.

Is this surge of online usage now causing a new kind of traffic jam? Are we seeing too much of the buffering sign — please check your internet connection? As in the physical counterparts of these activities, is there now a digital waiting line?

When calling a customer service number (all lines are busy now) or accessing a link, the switchboard quickly instructs the caller to press the number for the service required (press 8 if you just want somebody to talk to). This directs the customer to queue in the proper lane to transact. He often still needs to wait for a real person, or a robot, to help him after establishing his bona fides: what is your mother’s maiden name; what was her favorite color?

We still remember the waiting line in the old normal.

The reception area is a good indicator of customer patronage, just like a full restaurant with a waiting line outside. Still, any person needing to be physically present for a transaction, even in these times, as in medical procedures or a job interview needs to deal with the waiting experience.

What amenities should the digital processing room provide? How can the queue be served better as humans and robots (combined as “hubots”) line up the customers needing to be served?

Here’s what the digital service provider should pay attention to.

Guide the customer. A sizable segment of online users now for virtual meetings, e-commerce, or digital banking are recent converts. A number are elderly “digital tourists” (Hey, Boomer) unfamiliar with the terrain. They can forget passwords. (Which one am I using for this?) Before automatically locking down the bank account on the third false try, then needing to go back to zero and reestablish access, this tourist has to be alerted. It’s good to send a warning on the second wrong try — go back to your notes and check the right password, sir.

Establish one-stop solutions. Being passed from one contact to another can be stressful. (Oh, you had an unauthorized use of your credit card. You pressed the number for lost card, let me pass you on to a Robot #6.) Call centers should be multi-tasking, unless they’re working from home. Wait, I need to feed my baby.

Avoid countdowns. Maybe because of the performance metric of “processing time” per customer (the shorter, the better), service agents try to rush through the procedures. Even ATMs now have a countdown — get the cash in five seconds. This rush to being served within a certain time can rattle the customer. How he longs for the friendly teller wearing a face mask who can fill in the account number! (Is your mother still in ICU, Sir?)

Leave a document of completed transactions. It’s quite comforting to get a confirmation e-mail that the credit card payment done through online banking has been successfully concluded. This helps in tracking bill payments, especially now when utilities, card companies, and even clubs no longer always send bills through messengers or post.

Can there be a more irritating symbol on the gadget than the buffering wheel? It’s the digital command to wait. There is no indication if the system is actually down — “the information session has expired.” Please try again later.

Still, since the mission statement of most companies seem to deal with becoming a digital organization, it is important to remember that the customers cannot always be expected to keep up with every upgrade. Knowing the customer is a mantra not just for proper servicing (the customer is king) but for understanding what works with him.

The digital tourists, or those who get lost in the online maze, sometimes happen to be old and wealthy. It’s good to elicit feedback from them on their waiting experience — hope you liked the music… or did you prefer OPM?

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Vaccines, not spy planes: US misfires in Southeast Asia

By Tom Allard

JAKARTA — For months, by Zoom calls and then by jet, Indonesian ministers and officials scoured the world for access to a vaccine for the coronavirus that Southeast Asia’s biggest country is struggling to control. This month, their campaign paid off.

Three Chinese companies committed 250 million doses of vaccines to the archipelago of 270 million people. A letter of intent was signed with a UK-based company for another 100 million.

Absent from these pledges: the United States.

Not only was it not promising any vaccine, but months earlier the United States shocked Indonesian officials by asking to land and refuel its spy planes in the territory, four senior Indonesian officials told Reuters. This would reverse a decades-long policy of strategic neutrality in the country.

With the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo due to visit Jakarta on Oct. 29, Washington’s campaign to buttress its influence in the region — part of its escalating global rivalry with China — has been misfiring, say government officials and analysts.

On the other hand, China – Indonesia and the region’s biggest investor and trading partner – has won ground with vaccines and trade.

America’s strategic interests converge with those of many others in the region; Washington opposes Beijing’s island-building and militarization of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei dispute China’s territorial claim to over 90% of the waterway.

Indonesia does not have a formal claim to the waters, but it, too, opposes China’s claim. China is less popular among Indonesians than the United States, according to polling in 2018 by the Pew Research Center, a think-tank in Washington.

This is an edge that the United States under President Donald Trump has blunted, according to interviews with more than a dozen government officials, former diplomats and analysts. Meanwhile China is managing to parlay its economic heft and early recovery from coronavirus restrictions to strategic advantage, they said.

“The US uses sanctions and muscle too much,” said one Indonesian government source. “China is smart. It always uses the soft power approach, the economic approach, the development approach.”

Mr. Pompeo said ahead of his visit that there are issues where the United States has already improved the relationship between the countries, “but there’s more that we can do.”

US assistant secretary of State David Stillwell said separately the US was working to build a “stronger economic partnership” with Indonesia and the United States had donated 1,000 ventilators to the country, part of a $12.5 million coronavirus aid package.

SPY PLANES
A former Dutch colony with hundreds of ethnic groups scattered over more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a founder member of the non-aligned movement, an alliance of developing countries which agreed after World War II to avoid any defense tie-ups that serve the interests of the big powers. Since emerging from authoritarian rule 22 years ago, it has never allowed foreign militaries to stage operations on its soil, although it does conduct military exercises with other nations.

With this in mind, Indonesian officials said it was a surprise when the United States made multiple high-level approaches in late July and early August to Indonesia’s defense and foreign ministers to grant landing and refueling rights to its P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft. These play a central role in monitoring China’s military activity in Southeast Asia.

The proposal — first reported by Reuters — was swiftly rejected after it was reviewed by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, commonly known as “Jokowi,” the officials said.

Mr. Pompeo declined to comment on the rebuff. The US Defence department declined to comment, as did spokespeople for Indonesia’s government.

Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia have allowed P-8s to fly in and out of their territory; Washington’s request was more political than operational, said Euan Graham, an Asia-Pacific security analyst attached to the Shangri-la Dialogue, an annual meeting of regional security chiefs.

The P-8 bid was part of a region-wide US diplomatic blitz that began in mid-July with three days of speeches by Mr. Pompeo and other senior US officials denouncing China’s conduct in the South China Sea.

As well as declaring China’s territorial claims unlawful, the United States accused Beijing of “gangster tactics,” saying Beijing denies Southeast Asian states the opportunity to develop the sea’s resources. Washington has also announced sanctions on Chinese firms and individuals that help China build military installations on islands, atolls and shoals in the waters. China bases its claim in the South China Sea on what it calls “historic rights.”

Repeated incursions into Indonesia’s waters by Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels are an emotive issue in Indonesia, where there is a strong nationalist streak. The presence of about 36,000 Chinese workers in Indonesia — one-third of all foreign workers according to government data — has also riled many Indonesians.

In the past, the government has blown up Chinese and other foreign fishing vessels.

Senior officials say Indonesia has told China bluntly of its concerns of its aggression in the South China Sea this year. In July, Indonesia held military exercises in the portion of the waterway its claims as its exclusive economic zone.

But Indonesian officials said Washington’s response to China has been unnecessarily combative. Adding to their anxiety, they said, was a growing fear that military conflict was brewing after the US and China held major military exercises in the South China Sea within sight of each other near the contested Paracel Islands on July 4.

Foreign minister Ms. Retno responded to the rising superpower tensions in the region by contacting her counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum via their WhatsApp group. It was, said Ms. Retno, a “very fluid and intensive communication” that quickly led to a joint statement on Aug. 8 decrying the “detrimental ramifications” of “changing geo-political dynamics in the region.”

VACCINE DIPLOMACY
President Jokowi, a former furniture manufacturer and exporter, has a plan to transform Indonesia’s economy and set a course for the country to become one of the world’s top five economies by 2045. That vision took a body-blow from the coronavirus pandemic.

With fewer than 400,000 infections and 14,000 deaths, Indonesia’s official coronavirus burden is much lighter than many other big countries. However, epidemiologists and public health experts say very low rates of testing and contact-tracing mean the official figures significantly underestimate the spread and the government can’t suppress the virus. An estimated 10 million Indonesians have fallen back into poverty and Indonesia’s economic outlook has been downgraded repeatedly by the government and international agencies.

Jokowi has said the government’s response to the pandemic and prospects for economic recovery are good compared to other countries.

Early access to a vaccine is Indonesia’s only shot at controlling the pandemic, said Greg Poling, a Southeast Asia analyst from the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It’s the silver bullet,” he told Reuters in an interview. “They have to get the vaccine as fast as possible.”

Jokowi’s close confidant and Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, Luhut Pandjaitan, gave the president cause for hope when he returned in October from China’s Yunnan province with promised supplies of vaccines, which are in phase three trials, as well as a pledge to help Indonesia manufacture and export one of the vaccines to other countries.

“It is very easy dealing with the Chinese and they actually executed almost all of their promises and commitments,” said a senior adviser who traveled to Yunnan with Mr. Pandjaitan.

The US, grappling with one of the world’s most severe COVID-19 outbreaks, has hoarded its vaccines, withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO) and, unlike China, refused to join a WHO-sponsored plan to pool vaccines and distribute them to countries based on need.

“They are completely ceding the field to China,” said Aaron Connelly, an analyst with Singapore’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.

On his trip to Yunnan, Mr. Pandjaitan also secured almost $20 billion in funding from Chinese companies for a pet project of the president: a plan to build a lithium battery factory and nickel processing industry, the adviser said. Next month, senior government officials say Indonesia is expected to sign the world’s biggest trade pact — the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership — that involves ASEAN states and China, but not the US. Meanwhile, the US has been reviewing Indonesia’s preferential trade status, to the alarm of Jakarta.

‘NOT ONLY CHINA’
Indonesian officials and analysts say the Trump administration has made several unforced diplomatic errors in Southeast Asia. These started in 2018 when Mr. Trump did not attend the US-ASEAN summit. In 2019, he sent his national security adviser, a relatively junior government member, prompting seven of the region’s 10 leaders to boycott the event. Washington has not appointed an ambassador to ASEAN since 2017.

Mr. Connelly said Mr. Pompeo’s confrontational rhetoric — he has described the Chinese Communist Party as the “greatest threat” to the US — makes Southeast Asian states less willing to cooperate with the United States.

“He makes it about the US versus China, rather than what China is doing to Southeast Asia,” he said.

Dino Patti Djalal, an Indonesian ambassador to the United States from 2010 to 2013, said Mr. Pompeo’s “aggressively anti-China rhetoric” was, in part, targeting a domestic political audience as the Trump administration tries to deflect criticism of its handling of the coronavirus onto China.

Mr. Trump’s push to cast China as the villain because the virus originated there had not resonated with Southeast Asian governments, he said, while China’s vaccine diplomacy and its early economic recovery will serve Beijing well strategically.

“China is smartly and strategically using the COVID crisis to advance their relationships (in the region),” he said. “They are striking that theme they have always been pushing: When there are difficulties, it is China, not the US, that you can rely on.”

Indonesia’s foreign minister Retno Marsudi says Indonesia wants to engage with as many countries as possible when it comes to combating the coronavirus and developing its economy, including the US This, she told Reuters, was the essence of Indonesia’s “independent and active” foreign policy.

“It’s not only China,” she said. — Reuters

Singapore’s central bank sees ‘gradual and uneven’ recovery

BLOOMBERG

SINGAPORE’s recovery from the coronavirus recession is likely to be “gradual and uneven,” with firms and households restraining spending and a recent bounceback in industrial output likely to taper off in coming months, the central bank said.

While some economies worldwide, including Singapore’s, are showing signs of healing in the third quarter, “the near-term rebound is expected to fade to an incomplete recovery,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in its biannual Macroeconomic Review, released Wednesday. The city-state’s labor market is expected to “only expand gradually” next year.

“Some pockets of the economy may not recover to pre-pandemic levels even by the end of next year,” the MAS said, noting that Singapore’s travel-related and contact-intensive services are likely to remain depressed. “Firms and households will continue to be restrained by income loss and increased uncertainty, and will therefore hold back on investment and discretionary spending.”

The MAS still projects the local economy to contract 5% to 7% this year, reaffirming the Ministry of Trade & Industry’s forecast.

Singapore has unleashed about S$100 billion ($73.5 billion) in fiscal stimulus to combat the impact of the pandemic, including short-term aid like wage subsidies and rent relief as well as longer-term efforts to digitize business and retrain retrenched workers. About half of the stimulus is set to be funded from past reserves, an unusual move for the fiscally conservative city-state.

Officials are confident Singapore has already suffered the worst of the economic blow, but anticipate more retrenchments, bankruptcies and non-performing loans through early next year. They’ve signaled more stimulus will be needed as the economy emerges from the worst downturn since the country’s independence more than a half-century ago.

Globally, the recovery will be “partial and protracted,” weighing on trade-reliant Singapore more than any recession before, the central bank said. Accommodative monetary and fiscal policy will bolster economies this year and monetary policy should remain lenient in coming quarters, while countries’ fiscal policies are likely to turn contractionary next year, the MAS said.

The pace of recovery worldwide “is not expected to be sufficient to close the large negative output gaps opened up by the COVID-19 recession, even by the end of 2021,” the MAS said. “The course of the pandemic is highly uncertain, but it seems likely that activity will continue to be hampered by recurrent localized outbreaks of the virus, and the imposition of associated movement restrictions, for some time.”

Significant downside risks to the global outlook remain, such as waves of new infections, US-China tensions and mistimed policy tightening, the MAS said. Earlier-than-anticipated availability and deployment of a vaccine is an upside risk.

Locally, the MAS sees some near-term recovery in construction and other sectors reliant on foreign workers, who are gradually returning to work sites. Information, communications and technology sectors, as will as financial services, were also cited as bright spots, boosted by recent announcements from ByteDance Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to make Singapore their headquarters in Asia.

The central bank maintained its projections for inflation, seeing headline price growth at -0.5% to 0.5% next year while core inflation should be between 0% and 1%. Both indicators are still seen in the range of -0.5% to 0% for 2020, with the pandemic-induced demand slowdown and oil-price shock providing strong disinflationary pressure, the report said.

The MAS has allowed fiscal spending to lead the virus response, opting to keep monetary policy on hold at its Oct. 14 decision. The slope of the currency band — which the authority uses to control monetary policy, rather than interest rates — was left at 0%, and the band’s width and center were kept unchanged, implying the MAS wouldn’t seek any currency appreciation.

The central bank said at the time that its accommodative policy stance “will remain appropriate for some time” as it sees the economy recovering next year — albeit slowly — with a lessening risk of disinflation.

October’s hold decision came after the MAS eased policy at its prior meeting in March, early in the pandemic. — Bloomberg

Melbourne opens up dining, shopping as lockdown lifted

MELBOURNE — Melbourne’s shops, restaurants and hotels opened for business on Wednesday after a four month coronavirus lockdown, with happy customers enjoying alfresco eating in the spring sunshine and shopkeepers hoping for big sales to make up for lost revenue.

The state of Victoria and its capital Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, has been the epicenter of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections, but the strict lockdown has ended a second wave, with only two new cases and two deaths overnight.

“Around 180,000 workers can return to work on site. That is a achievement that every single Victorian should be proud of,” state premier Daniel Andrews told a regular media briefing.

“We all have to follow the rules, to protect staff, to protect customers, to protect this fragile thing that we have built…So we can have the Christmas we have been looking forward to, with the people we have missed the most.”

On Melbourne’s Carlisle St, in the dining district of Prahran, patrons were seated at outdoor dining tables, drinking coffee and eating brunch of smashed avocado and eggs on toast.

A sign outside the Las Chicas restaurant advertised for any experienced barista and floor staff to “drop in a resume”. “It’s quite a sunny day here in Melbourne. It’s not over yet, but I’m pretty excited about things opening up again,” said student Ben Israelson, 22, who was drinking coffee with a university friend.

Mr. Israelson, who lost his part-time job as a hearing aid salesman in late March, said he was optimistic he would find work through a placement as part of his university studies next year.

A few shops down, at salon and retail store Beautyologist, director Sia Psicharis said she was braced for a heavy day of retail sales while readying beauty services like eyebrow waxing and laser hair removal, to open up on Friday. Other salons opened Wednesday.

In the seven months the store was closed, she had invested in staff training on skin treatments and speciality Australian beauty brands, taking advantage of government assistance but also topping up their salaries.

“It was sink or swim, we put all our efforts into our social media and our ecommerce,” she said. “Now, I’m feeling really excited, optimistic, can’t wait to get into it. We have got Christmas coming up so it’s an exciting time.”

Salons and restaurants still have to comply with strict spacing requirements that cap dining numbers at 10 per indoor space and 50 outdoor, which will make it uneconomic for some businesses to reopen. Others have already closed for good.

Dotted among the cafes, bakeries, and barbers on the shopping strip were vacant shop fronts plastered with For Lease signs.

Strict social distancing measures, mass testing and swift contact tracing has seen Australia successfully combated a fresh outbreak of the virus, having stamped down cases from more than 700 a day in July, even as many other developed countries grapple with a third wave of record infections.

Eight new cases were reported in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales on Wednesday. Seven were overseas travelers in hotel quarantine and one was local. Queensland state logged two cases, bringing Australia’s total cases to 27,552.

Success against the virus, as well as fiscal and monetary stimulus, appears to be pulling Australia’s economy out of its first recession in three decades, which it briefly entered this year, although lower immigration and high unemployment will keep the recovery path uneven, a Reuters poll showed this week. — Reuters

Dodgers end 32-year title drought

THE best team in a truncated regular season also was the top team in an extended playoffs, as the Los Angeles Dodgers ended a 32-year championship drought with a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 6 of the World Series on Tuesday at Arlington, Texas.

The Dodgers also were the best homer-hitting team in a regular season that was shortened to 60 games as a concession to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they got inventive on offense to earn their deciding victory.

In their 16th consecutive game at the Texas Rangers’ new Globe Life Field, the Dodgers turned a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice into run-scoring gold in the fifth inning. The runs gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead. The Dodgers also used seven pitchers, including starter Tony Gonsolin, who was pulled after 1 2/3 innings.

Left-hander Julio Urias was the last of those arms, striking out Willy Adames looking to end it while pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the save. Lefty Victor Gonzalez (1-0) threw 1 1/3 shutout innings with three strikeouts to earn the victory.

Rays starter Blake Snell was in the midst of the most impressive start of his career, when factoring in the moment. He struck out nine and gave up just two harmless singles the first two times through the Dodgers order.

However, with one out in the sixth inning, following a single by Dodgers No. 9 hitter Austin Barnes, Rays manager Kevin Cash went to his bullpen to protect a 1-0 lead, putting right-hander Nick Anderson (1-1) into the game. After striking out twice against Snell, Mookie Betts hit a double to put runners on second and third.

Barnes scored on an Anderson wild pitch to tie the game, with Betts moving to third. Corey Seager, who also fanned twice against Snell, then hit a ground ball to first with Betts scoring on a dive just ahead of the throw home for a 2-1 advantage.

“I’m not exactly sure why, I’m not asking any questions, but he was pitching a great game,” Betts said of the Rays’ decision to lift Snell. “(Barnes) led off with a hit, I think, right there. We had a chance to do something, but they made a pitching change, and it seemed like that’s all we needed.”

The exclamation point came in the eighth when Betts, the Dodgers’ high-profile roster addition in the offseason after a trade with the Boston Red Sox, hit a home run for a 3-1 advantage. It was his second homer of the series.

AROZARENA
There would be more heroics from Rays rookie Randy Arozarena, who gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with a first-inning home run against Gonsolin.

Arozarena became the second rookie ever to hit three home runs in a single World Series while extending his record for a single postseason to 10 homers. He also became the first rookie with RBIs in four consecutive World Series games.

MVP
Seager, who finished the six games at 8-for-20 with two home runs and five RBIs, was named the World Series MVP.

Also, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced after the game that Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, tested positive for COVID-19. He was removed from the game when the Dodgers took the field for the top of the eighth.

It was the Dodgers’ seventh World Series championship in franchise history, with six of them coming after they moved to Los Angeles in 1958. The title also came in their eighth consecutive trip to the postseason and their third World Series in four years.

The Dodgers’ most recent title came in 1988, when a hobbled Kirk Gibson hit a walk-off homer to beat the Oakland Athletics in Game 1. Los Angeles went on to win the series in five games. — Reuters

Chooks-to-Go 3×3: Zamboanga City packing momentum heading to finale; Valientes undeterred

TRUE to form, Family’s Brand Sardines- Zamboanga City Chooks is proving to be the team to beat in the ongoing season of the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 President’s Cup, ruling three legs out of four to date and packing much momentum heading into the last leg and finale on Friday.

Composed of national team pool members, Zamboanga City has been a handful for the rest of the 12-team field of the league.

The team chalked up its third leg victory on Tuesday, edging Uling Roasters-Butuan City, 21-20, in a tightly fought finals at the INSPIRE Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.

Zamboanga City also ruled the first two legs of the tournament before Butuan City squeezed in to take the championship in the third leg.

Santi Santillan stepped up for Zamboanga City in their last game providing hustle and scoring the marginal basket from the free throw line.

The team was comfortably ahead, 20-16, inside the last three and a half minutes only to see Butuan City charge back on consecutive two-point bombs by Chris De Chavez to tie the knot at 20-all.

Zamboanga City went to top local 3×3 player Joshua Munzon after to secure for it the win but his attempt at the basket missed.

Fortunately for the team, Mr. Santillan secured the rebound before getting fouled.

The former La Salle player confidently sank his free throw, preserving the win for his team.

Mr. Munzon top-scored for Zamboanga City in the win with 11 points, followed by Mr. Santillan with six.

Teammates Alvin Pasaol and Troy Rike added three and a point, respectively.

For topping Leg 4, the team earned another P100,000.

Zamboanga City is now girding for the grand finals in the FIBA 3×3-endorsed tournament scheduled for Friday where it will be the top seed.

In the grand finale, where a P1-million top prize awaits the winner, the four top-seeded teams earn a direct entry into the quarterfinals, leaving the eight bottom teams needing to go through qualifying where only four will advance to the next round.

Joining Zamboanga City as top seeds are Butuan City, Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards and Pasig City-Sta. Lucia Realtors.

VALIENTES
Meanwhile, the Zamboanga Valientes MLV remained determined and committed to their tournament push despite have it challenging to date.

The team made it to the semifinals of the opening leg of the President’s Cup and followed it up with playoff runs in the succeeding legs but has yet to create the big splash it is aiming for.

It, however, is hoping the breakthrough will come in the grand finals.

The Valientes are composed of Zamboanga native Rudy Lingganay, Gino Juamaoas, Med Salim, Arar de Leon and Jonjon Rebollos and is coached by Joseph Romarate.

The team, which has played in different 5-on-5 and 3-on-3 leagues and gone through different iterations since being formed 14 years ago, is on a mission to spotlight basketball talents from the Zamboanga Peninsula and provide them with an opportunity to establish a career in the sport. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Meralco guard Newsome finding his stride; PBA postpones game

HAD it slow in the early goings of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) estart, do-it-all Meralco Bolts guard Chris Newsome has picked it up of late and it has been a boon to his team.

The recently named PBA Philippine Cup player of the week, Mr. Newsome, 30, has been key in the improved showing of Meralco (3-2) that has seen it be in the mix in the race to the top.

The former Ateneo standout, in particular, was big-time in their last two matches, both victories, averaging 20.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and six assists.

His stat line has improved from his first three matches of 9.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and four assists, where they went 1-2.

Mr. Newsome has been more aggressive and providing the motor that the Bolts need in the tournament.

More telling, he is stepping up at the most opportune of time, including draining big shots and making big plays in their game against the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok in their come-from-behind 109-104 overtime victory on Oct. 20.

That performance, where he had 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists, set the tone for him en route to getting the nod for player of the week honors given by media covering the league.

Meralco was set to play the defending champions San Miguel Beermen later on Wednesday, staking their two-game winning streak.

PBA POSTPONES GAME
Meanwhile, the PBA deemed it fit to postpone the opening game between the Blackwater Elite and Magnolia on Wednesday at the Angeles University Foundation Arena in Pampanga as part of league protocols and “pending approval of the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emergin Infectious Diseases).”

Recently, a Blackwater player tested positive for the coronavirus but was later considered “false positive” after yielding negative results in confirmatory antigen and reverse transcription polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

The player, however, remains at the quarantine facility in the Athletes’ Village in Capas, Tarlac, until he is allowed to come back in the bubble and go through re-entry protocols.

The whole Blackwater team, as well as the TNT Tropang Giga, whom the Elite faced in their last game, were isolated as a precautionary measure while the results of the confirmatory tests on the player were being awaited last weekend.

The Blackwater-Magnolia game will be rescheduled to a later date. 

Games on Thursday, meanwhile, have the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters (4-2) taking on the Alaska Aces (4-3) in the 4 p.m. opener to be followed at 6:45 p.m. by the match pitting the TNT (5-0) against the NLEX Road Warriors (1-5). — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Azkals development team aims to make full use of PFL bid

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

THE Azkals Development Team (ADT) got its campaign going in the fourth season of the Philippines Football League (PFL) on Wednesday; a bid it aims to make full use of in seeing its vision through as an organization.

Was to take on United City Football Club (formerly Ceres-Negros FC) in the opener of the PFL’s new season, ADT said it welcomes the opportunity to play in the league and be given the platform to have its players develop for the next level.

“[We’re] happy to get this (tournament) on. It’s great that a development team can enter a league like this. So it’s going to be a different angle for a team like ADT to come into the league but it’s about time and we’re looking forward to it,” said national team and ADT coach Scott Cooper in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

Mr. Cooper underscored that their push is anchored on striking a balance of developing players and doing well in the tournament, where they are competing for the first time as an official member of the field.

“Goal for the team is primarily to develop the players, and part of developing players is showing them how to win football games. So we’re in the mix of balancing things out,” said the British coach, whose side participated as a guest team in the Copa Paulino Alcantara last year.

“There’s not much pressure on the team. We’re here to see what we can do and how far we can go. That’s not saying, however, that we’re going to accept being beaten because it’s not in my nature, not in the team’s nature. You have to learn how to win football games… But the big picture is we will try to develop the players for them to move on and move to the next level,” he added.

The ADT roster seeing action in the PFL is composed of goalkeepers Quincy Julian Kammeraad and Anton Yared; and defenders Dean Ebarle, Janherc Fritz Brigoli, Simen Alexander Lyngbo, Mar Vincent Diano, Jan Vincent Quintana, Jarvey Gayoso, Matthew Custodio and Kainoa Bailey.

Also part of the squad are midfielders Carlo Dorin, Matt Lancelot Ocampo, Marvin Angeles, Dmitri Lionel Limbo, Christian Rontini, Yrick Gallantes, Jerome Marzan, and Jethro Adriel Borlongan; and forwards Kennedy Uzoka and Marcel Ivan Quano.

Mr. Cooper said the team chose the players for select positions to help them grow and develop their game further.

In the PFL, ADT will play the rest of the field once—a total of five games.

Season four of the PFL is being done in a “bubble” setup and is scheduled for two weeks with no fans watching.

The team on top in the end will be crowned as champion.

The Philippine Football Federation National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite, is the official game venue while Seda Nuvali in Santa Rosa, Laguna, houses the teams and the league for the duration of the proceedings.

During the tournament, all clubs are asked to strictly adhere to health and safety protocols prescribed for the league amid the coronavirus pandemic.

PFL matches can be viewed over the PFL Facebook page. PFL YouTube Channel, 1Play Sports, EXPTV Channel and www.PFLTV.ph.

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