Section 33. Section 108 of the NIRC, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

“Sec. 108. Value-added Tax on Sale of Services and Use or Lease of Properties.—

“(A) Rate and Base of Tax.— There shall be levied, assessed and collected, a value-added tax equivalent to twelve percent (12%) of gross receipts derived from the sale or exchange of services, including the use or lease of properties.

“The phrase ‘sale or exchange of services’ means the performance of all kinds of services in the Philippines for others for a fee, remuneration or consideration, including those performed or rendered by construction and service contractors; stock, real estate, commercial, customs and immigration brokers; lessors of property, whether personal or real; warehousing services; lessors or distributors of cinematographic films; persons engaged in milling, processing, manufacturing or repacking goods for others; proprietors, operators or keepers of hotels, motels, resthouses, pension houses, inns, resorts; proprietors or operators of restaurants, refreshment parlors, cafes and other eating places, including clubs and caterers; dealers in securities; lending investors; transportation contractors on their transport of goods or cargoes, including persons who transport goods or cargoes for hire and other domestic common carriers by land relative to their transport of goods or cargoes; common carriers by air and sea relative to their transport of passengers, goods or cargoes from one place in the Philippines to another place in the Philippines; sales of electricity by generation companies, transmission by any entity, and distribution companies, including electric cooperatives; services of franchise grantees of electric utilities, telephone and telegraph, radio and television broadcasting and all other franchise grantees except those under Section 119 of this Code and non-life insurance companies (except their crop insurances), including surety, fidelity, indemnity and bonding companies; and similar services regardless of whether or not the performance thereof calls for the exercise or use of the physical or mental faculties. The phrase ‘sale or exchange of services’ shall likewise include:

“(1) The lease or the use of or the right or privilege to use any copyright, patent, design or model, plan, secret formula or process, goodwill, trademark, trade brand or other like property or right;

“(2) The lease or the use of, or the right to use of any industrial, commercial or scientific equipment;

“(3) The supply of scientific, technical industrial or commercial knowledge or information;

“(4) The supply of any assistance that is ancillary and subsidiary to and is furnished as a means of enabling the application or enjoyment of any such property, or right as is mentioned in subparagraph (2) or any such knowledge or information as is mentioned in subparagraph (3);

“(5) The supply of services by a nonresident person or his employee in connection with the use of property or rights belonging to, or the installation or operation of any brand, machinery or other apparatus purchased from such nonresident person;

“(6) The supply of technical advice, assistance or services rendered in connection with technical management or administration of any scientific industrial or commercial undertaking, venture, projector scheme;

“(7) The lease of motion picture films, -films, tapes and discs; and

“(8) The lease or the use of or the right to use radio, television, satellite transmission and cable television time.

“Lease of properties shall be subject to the tax herein imposed irrespective of the place where the contract of lease or licensing agreement was executed if the property is leased or used in the Philippines.

“The term ‘gross receipts’ means the total amount of money or its equivalent representing the contract price, compensation, service fee, rental or royalty, including the amount charged for materials supplied with the services and deposits and advanced payments actually or constructively received during the taxable quarter for the services performed or to be performed for another person, excluding value-added tax.

“(B) Transactions Subject to Zero Percent (0%) Rate.— The following services performed in the Philippines by VAT registered persons shall be subject to zero percent (0%) rate:

“(1) Processing, manufacturing or repacking goods for other persons doing business outside the Philippines which goods are subsequently exported, where the services are paid for in acceptable foreign currency and accounted for in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP);

“(2) Services other than those mentioned in the preceding paragraph, rendered to a person engaged in business conducted outside the Philippines or to a nonresident person not engaged in business who is outside the Philippines when the services are performed, the consideration for which is paid for in acceptable foreign currency and accounted for in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP);

“(3) Services rendered to persons or entities whose exemption under special laws or international agreements to which the Philippines is a signatory effectively subjects the supply of such services to zero percent (0%) rate;

“(4) Services rendered to persons engaged in international shipping or international air transport operations, including leases of property for use thereof: Provided, That these services shall be exclusive for international shipping or air transport operations;

“(5) Services performed by subcontractors and/or contractors in processing, converting, or manufacturing goods for an enterprise whose export sales exceed seventy percent (70%) of total annual production;

“(6) Transport of passengers and cargo by domestic air or sea vessels from the Philippines to a foreign country; and

“(7) Sale of power or fuel generated through renewable sources of energy such as, but not limited to, biomass, solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, ocean energy, and other emerging energy sources using technologies such as fuel cells and hydrogen fuels.

“(8) Services rendered to:

“(i) Registered enterprises within a separate customs territory as provided under special law; and

“(ii) Registered enterprises within tourism enterprise zones as declared by the TIEZA subject to the provisions under Republic Act No. 9593 or The Tourism Act of 2009.

“Provided, That subparagraphs (B)(1) and (B)(5) hereof shall be subject to the twelve percent (12%) value-added tax and no longer be subject to zero percent (0%) VAT rate upon satisfaction of the following conditions:

“(1) The successful establishment and implementation of an enhanced VAT refund system that grants refunds of creditable input tax within ninety (90) days from the filing of the VAT refund application with the Bureau: Provided, That, to determine the effectivity of item no. 1, all applications filed from January 1, 2018 shall be processed and must be decided within ninety (90) days from the filing of the VAT refund application; and

“(2) All pending VAT refund claims as of December 31, 2017 shall be fully paid in cash by December 31, 2019.

“Provided, That the Department of Finance shall establish a VAT refund center in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that will handle the processing and granting of cash refunds of creditable input tax.

“An amount equivalent to five percent (5%) of the total value-added tax collection of the BIR and the BOC from the immediately preceding year shall be automatically appropriated annually and shall be treated as a special account in the General Fund or as trust receipts for the purpose of funding claims for VAT Refund: Provided, That any unused fund, at the end of the year shall revert to the General Fund.

“Provided, further, That the BIR and the BOC shall be required to submit to the COCCTRP a quarterly report of all pending claims for refund and any unused fund.”