The Senate unanimously approved Monday on third and final reading the priority bill enhancing the development of renewable energy, to lessen the country's dependence on energy generated from imported fossil fuel.

The vote was 18-0 with no abstention. The certified bill was supposed to have been approved last week but was delayed when the session were focused on the "double entry" issue.

The Renewable Energy Act has been pending in Congress since 1997.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, one of the principal authors and sponsors of the bill, said the a key feature of the measure provides a seven-year income tax holiday to investors in renewable energy development in the Philippines. It was also sponsored by Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Edgardo Angara.

All registered renewable energy developers will also be allowed to import machinery, equipment and materials without paying duties and value added tax. They will be entitled to special tax rate of 5 percent of gross income.

Zubiri said that these and other incentives would encourage large-scale investments in renewable energy. He justified these incentives, saying they would enable investors to survive the initial phase of costly construction and operations.

"The beauty of renewable energy power plants is that the high investment costs are only at the beginning of the project, then costs taper off during operations since power is generated from cost-free renewable sources like wind, solar, hydro and geothermal," he explained.

He stressed that renewable energy is constantly replenished and never runs out, aside from lowering the rate of global warming by lessening the country's dependence on fossil fuel.

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