PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday led the ceremonial ringing of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) bell, signaling the start of the implementation of the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotions Act (CMEPA), a law that eases taxes and processes in investing in the country’s bourse.
Under the CMEPA, the tax on stock investment is reduced to 0.1 percent from 0.6 percent.
“Before this law, investing in stocks meant paying a tax… six times higher than our neighbors in Singapore and Malaysia, and certainly the highest in ASEAN,” Marcos Jr. said in his speech, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“For a first-time investor buying a ten-thousand-peso worth of stock, this means paying P10 pesos in tax instead of P60,” he said. “This will encourage more Filipinos to invest in our capital market.”
The CMEPA was signed into law in May 2025 as the Philippines pushes to “redefine and transform how Filipinos invest, build, and grow their hard-earned savings.”
“This law also removed the documentary stamp tax on mutual funds and unit investment trust funds — investment tools widely used by young professionals and middle-class savers,” Marcos Jr. said, noting that the “adjustment on rates lowers barriers and opens the market to more investors.”
“Additionally, we have introduced a uniform final tax rate of 20 percent on interest income,” he said.
While the CMEPA removed exemptions for government-owned and controlled corporations to level the playing field, the law also provides incentives for companies that will design programs to aid their workers in saving up for their eventual retirement.
Marcos Jr. noted that in five years, the “CMEPA is projected to generate over P25 billion in net revenue.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been instructed “to streamline its procedures, remove bureaucratic bottlenecks, [and] reduce transaction costs within its control.”
PSE president and CEO Ramon S. Monzon described the special bell-ringing ceremony as “an auspicious way for PSE to start the second half of 2025,” noting that the CMEPA will be part of Marcos Jr.’s “legacy he will leave on the Philippine capital market.”
The PSE has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Migrant Workers in February to “conduct learning sessions for OFWs and their families on personal finance and stock market investment, while also protecting them from investment fraud,” Monzon said.
The PSE is also committed to work with the Commission on Higher Education “to include financial education in its curriculum and teach young students that the savers mindset is a way of life.” (ABS-CBN News)
