City collects P4.2 billion in taxes, other fees

CEBU, Philippines — For seven months, the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office has collected P4.2 billion in revenue because of its intensified collection of business and real property taxes and other fees.

From January to July this year, the records show that the CTO has collected P4.2 billion, which is close to its P6.1 billion target this year.

Acting City Treasurer Veronica Morelos said the continuous fight of City Mayor Tomas Osmeña against erring tax payers have paid off.

“Dako kay na og ikatabang kay ngano nangahadlok sila bisan og wala pa maagi sa atong inspector, nangari kay molukat na sila sa ilahang business permit or mamayad na sa ilang mga buhis,” she told reporters.

The city collected P3.8 billion in the same period last year.

To recall, there were 33,000 businesses that have registered in the city as of March this year. But, Morelos said about 30,000 businesses have renewed their permits.

Morelos said her office continuously deploys inspectors in every barangays of the city to check the businesses that are operating without permits.

She said the tax mapping in every sitio of the barangay have helped in their increasing collection.

“Ato sab gipang-ukay ng mga wala mang-renew, mga deliquent bali ba.  (Ang) wa mang-renew, atong gipang-extract, unya ato silang gipaninglan.  Gipadad-an nato og demand letters unya sa real property tax the same thing sa atong gihimo,” she said.

Morelos said the office will publish the list of delinquent taxpayers as soon as they will complete the consolidated report.

She said the street-by-street inspection has started as early as February.

With this, she said she is confident the city will achieve and surpass the P6.1 billion target this year.

To achieve it, Morelos said tax mapping of business establishments in the city will be made, adding that she will forward erring businesses to the City Legal Office for the demand letters.

Meanwhile, she said she is hoping that the City Council will formulate an ordinance and approve her recommendation to increase the tax rates by 1.5 percent, which is lower than the allowed increase of 10 percent every five years.

Morelos agreed with the Commission on Audit which asked the city to update its 24-year-old existing tax ordinance as a potential increase in revenue amounting to P1.6 billion could have been collected if the ordinance was updated in 2006. — GAN (FREEMAN)