Cebu City vows to go after businesses without permits
Hundreds of applicants for business permits flock to the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office before the January 27 deadline. Late applicants will be asked to pay a penalty. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Some 2K firms fail to renew permits in Cebu City; Mandaue extends deadline
The Cebu City government will go after businesses that have failed to secure permits before the deadline lapsed last week.
City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said around 2,000 businesses have not yet secured permits.
“We have assessed a total of 27,000 business establishments but so far, there are only over 25,000 businesses that have secured permits,” she said.
Cuevas said they will conduct tax mapping in coordination with the Mayor’s Office starting this month.
Business permit applicants after the January 27 deadline will be asked to pay a penalty for late registration. Those who fail to secure permits even after the tax mapping will be issued notices to comply. Failure to comply after three notices will mean closure of the establishments.
“We are really serious with our collection that’s why we urge business establishments to settle everything as early as now so that they won’t have to pay bigger fines,” Cuevas said.
As of January 26, the city government has collected P755.5 million for business permits renewal from 26,042 business establishments.
MANDAUE
In Mandaue City, renewal of business permits has been extended to February 4, City Treasurer Regal Oliva said.
“It is the fault of our office because our assessment seem very slow. Our system needs updating and upgrading,” Oliva said.
The last time the system was upgraded was in 2008.
Oliva said about 14,000 businesses are expected to renew their permits. Their system, however, has a capacity for only 8,000 business establishments.
As of Jan. 20, Oliva said 3,300 establishments have either renewed or secured new permits.
The Mandaue city government has collected P174 million in fees, about 40 percent higher than the collection in January last year.
Meanwhile, the city governments of Lapu-Lapu, Cebu and Mandaue were cited by the Department of Finance (DOF) for ranking among the top 20 cities in generating locally-sourced income in 2014.
Lapu-Lapu City ranked 15th for earning P1.44 billion, P908 million or 63 percent of which was locally sourced.
Cebu City ranked 17th with an income of P3.35 billion while Mandaue City placed 20th with an annual income of P1.2 billion.
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