The Philippines recently enacted Republic Act 10667 or the Philippine Competition Act which defines, prohibits and penalizes anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position, and anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions. It also creates the Philippine Competition Commission, which has original and primary jurisdiction to deal with cases involving violations of the Act. The Act was published on July 24, 2015 and took effect on August 8, 2015 ...
This year’s amendment of the Waste Act is forcing changes in the scheduling of incinerator projects. Target load start-up tests must be postponed until after the integrated permit is issued. This may give rise to claims by contractors for prolonging the project completion period because of a change in the law. In Poland there are currently six communal waste incineration plants under construction with EU funding ...
On July 22, 2015, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) providing that in certain circumstances a service provider’s allocations of a partnership’s income may be treated as compensatory payments for services under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”) ...
SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan contributed the Philippines chapter of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Guide to anti-corruption regulation in Asia Pacific 2015. The Guide provides a practical approach to applicable anti-bribery legislation and enforcement regimes. Contributed by managing partner Rafael A. Morales, partner Russel L. Rodriguez, and associate Vera Marie H ...
The Ecuadorian Civil Code is based in the code that made the great Chilean jurist Andrés Bello. The majority Civil Codes in Latin America are based in the Andres Bello Civil Code´s, which is based on the Civil Code of Napoleon Bonaparte. It has had several reforms over the time, on which attempt has been made to update to the reality and circumstances of each time. The Ecuadorian Civil Code is divided in four books: i) Persons; ii) Goods; iii) Succession upon death; and, iv) Obligations ...
Entrepreneurs are a special breed. The good ones have that special blend of vision, timing and risk tolerance most others lack. The really good ones find a way to use their special talents to make their communities a better place to live and work. Mike John is a really good entrepreneur. As we all know, the shale plays across the United States have been game changers ...
Ecuador is no stranger to the “State Capitalism” economic stream which prevailed in South America in the last two decades. This way to directly involve the central government to the country’s economy has triggered deep changes to the commercial relationships ...
In keeping with trends in other jurisdictions, Canada has brought into force federal rules requiring businesses in the extractive sector to publish annual reports on payments of $100,000 or more made to governments in Canada and abroad. Payments to Aboriginal governments will be covered by these rules starting in 2017 ...
Following President Obama’s announcement on December 17, 2014 of a policy to normalize relations with Cuba,the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended its Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amended its Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) on January 16, 2015, to implement the policy change ...
As part of the implementation of the Mexican Energy Reform, the Mexican government has selected certain fields that will gradually be tendered to foreign and domestic companies for hydrocarbon exploration and production projects. Round One includes 109 blocks for exploration and 60 blocks for production, and covers new areas of different sizes and types of resources, including (i)deepwater, (ii)shallow water, and (iii)onshore fields ...
Download a free copy of the Philippine section of The Public-Private Partnership Law Review edition 1, which was contributed by the SyCipLaw Partners Marievic G. Ramos-Añonuevo and Arlene M. Maneja.Aside from the Philippines, other jurisdictions covered include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Japan, Mozambique, Paraguay, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States ...
Following the gradual selection of areas and fields that will be tendered for foreign and domestic companies (including Mexican government production companies), pursuant to the Mexican Energy Reform enacted last year, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, “CNH”) published a formal call for the third bid of Round 1, “CNH-R01-L03/2015” in the National Federal Gazette on May 12, 2015 ...
The Act of 21 December 2013 concerning the financing of small and medium-sized undertakings (the “Act”) was published in the Belgian State Gazette on 31 December 2013. The Act entered into force in 2014 and applies to all Credit Agreements that have been concluded since that date. The Act applies to all Credit Agreements entered into between an Undertaking and an EEA Provider of Credit ...
Serbia is a contracting party to the Energy Community Treaty (ECT), signed in October 2005 between the European Union (EU) and nine South Eastern European countries. Since then, Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia have ceased to be parties upon their accession to the EU and thus are no longer parties to the ECT, while Moldova and Ukraine have become parties to the agreement. One of the explicit aims of the ECT is to support the development of renewable energy ...
Download a free copy of the Philippine section of The Tax Disputes and Litigation Review edition 3, which was contributed by the SyCipLaw Partner Carina C. Laforteza with Associate Mark Xavier D. Oyales ...
MontenegroThe Montenegrin Parliament recently enacted the new Law on Tax on Coffee and amendments to the Law on Value Added Tax, the Law on Real Estate Tax, the Law on Tax Administration and the Law on Mandatory Social Security. The purpose of these changes is to clarify existing provisions of these tax laws in order to improve their enforcement and to better control the tax liabilities of non-resident taxpayers ...
Significant changes to the tax regulations in the Republic of Srpska (“RS”) are expected in the coming months. On March 6, the National Assembly of RS passed amendments to the Law on Fiscal Cash Registries. In addition, Parliament approved the Government’s proposals on amendments to several important tax laws, including corporate income tax, personal income tax, social security contributions and property tax ...
As noted in our January 2015 Haynes and Boone Alert on “Stretching Your Borrowing Base,” the spring borrowing base redetermination season is upon us. Borrowing base reductions seem a certainty for many oil and gas producers ...
This coming Sunday, March 29, CME Group plans to launch the first ever physically-delivered crude oil storage futures contract. CME Group is able to make this contract available having teamed up with LOOP LLC (“LOOP”) (LOOP owns and operates the deepwater port and associated onshore terminal with significant crude oil handling, storage and re-distribution capabilities located in Clovelly, Louisiana, sometimes called the “Clovelly Hub”) and NEO Markets Inc. (“NEO”) ...
The Chambers Asia-Pacific 2015 Guide is now available online and features an overview of the Philippinescontributed by SyCipLaw Managing Partner Rafael A. Morales.The guide is distributed to corporate counsel worldwide and is accessible through the Chambers website: www.chambersandpartners.com/guide/asia/8/172/1 ...
The new Myanmar Electricity Law was enacted by the Myanmar Parliament on October 27 last year, replacing the old Electricity Law of 1984. The old electricity law was enacted during Myanmar’s socialist period and lacked the legal framework to include private sector participation in power projects and independent power producers ...
As part of our series on legal issues arising out of the plummeting commodity prices, this article looks at one distinct factor in the commodity finance equation: hedging. Hedging is usually thought of in terms of cash-settled derivatives offered by lenders as part of a broader financial relationship tied together by a credit agreement and perhaps collateral documents. But many other transactions blend hedging and finance attributes ...
What changed? Resolution 0572/2015 completely replaced Resolution 6588/2013, which regulates restricted and non-restricted nationals. What does this change mean? Chinese, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese citizens may now enter Colombia without previously requesting a visa as long as they hold a Shenghen C o D visa type or USA visa with the exception of transit C-1 visa ...
In an opinion that should give pause to mineral lessors, the Texas Supreme Court revisited the scope of the duty that an executive rights holder owes a non-executive, holding that a lessor’s negotiation of an above-market bonus (for itself) and below-market royalty (shared with the non-executive) may give rise to liability to the non-executive.KCM Financial LLC v. Bradshaw, No. 13-0199, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 220, --- S.W.3d --- (Tex. Mar. 6, 2015) ...
Amendments toPoland’s Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Act and Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act wentinto force at the beginning of 2015. One of the key changes is taxation ofincome earned by controlled foreign companies (CFC, in Polish: zagranicznespółki kontrolowane).With the entryinto force of the amendments to the CIT Act and the PIT Act, there is a 19% taxon CFC’s income that goes to a Polish tax resident ...
