Cebu City collects P7.371 billion in taxes last year

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella is proud of the city’s tax collection efficiency after having collected a total of P7.371 billion in revenues last year despite the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affecting the economy.

Albeit the amount was almost 50 percent less of its P11 billion revenue target last year, Labella said he was happy of the city’s “efficient and effective” collection of taxes.

“I give due recognition to the efforts of our City Treasurer ug sa mga collectors, ug sa atong City Assessor. Basta efficient, honest lang ang pagkolekta, bisa’g walay increase sa taxes pero tungod sa efficient collection, dako-dako og nakolekta ang dakbayan sa Sugbo,” said Labella.

Last year’s revenue collection was also way lower compared to the P14 billion collected in 2019. The mayor, however, said that P6 billion of the revenue collection in 2019 was from the consigned SRP sales.

Labella also announced that Cebu City has been awarded as among the Top 8 in Nominal Locally Sourced Revenues (LSR) for the year 2019 by Bureau of Local Government Finance’s (BLGF) national ranking of provinces, cities, and municipalities on local revenue generation.

The city also ranked fourth on the Collection Efficiency (CE) of LSR, and ranked second on the year-on-year growth in LSR.

“Kining mga award nagpasabot nga ang dakbayan sa Sugbo gi-recognize for our invaluable efforts in revenue generation, which is reflective sa economic growth sa atong dakbayan ug nasud. Makatabang man ning revenue generation sa paghatod sa kagamhanan og mas maayong serbisyo ngadto sa publiko,” said Labella.

He is optimistic that the tax collected this year will be higher especially now that the COVID-19 vaccination has gradually started.

“I am optimistic nga modako pa ni kay labi na kung mo-effective na ni ang atong pagbakuna unya eventually we will have a new normal. Dako ko’ng pagsalig na mas modako pa unya ang atong tax collection without necessarily increasing the rate of taxes,” he said.

He added that the business community should be encouraged to create more opportunities for people to be employed by giving them incentives.

“We’re thinking of some incentives para nga maka-employ sila og more people and there will be more spending from our people. Of course, kung ma-effective na ang vaccine, I think we can open more businesses and we will be more liberal,” said Labella.

Labella assured that in the event the COVID-19 vaccination in the city would result to a positive situation, one of the first things the city will do is to give more incentives, to be more liberal with the business endeavors as it is the lifeblood of any local government. — FPL (FREEMAN)