OSMEÑA
Osmeña says
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is willing to do away with business permits but under one condition. “I am not interested in the absence of business permits. Pay your taxes and we will not run after you. Just get your certificate from the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) that you paid taxes,” Osmeña said on Tuesday.
Osmeña proposed this as an alternative to cracking down on business establishments that have failed to secure business permits and have records of tax delinquency.
It came a day after he announced that the Cebu City government will be running after around 10,000 establishments operating without any business permits, and are not paying taxes to the city government.
Osmeña stressed the need for establishments to pay their taxes since the city government has been losing “billions” of pesos to tax delinquents.
The CTO, which is under the Department of Finance (DOF) through the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLFG), is tasked to collect business and real property taxes, among others, from private establishments in Cebu City.
But apparently Osmeña was not satisfied with the CTO’s tax collection performance as he, once again, criticized the office for being tolerant to tax delinquent establishments.
“We’re losing billions. Easily. And we have a CTO who is very forgiving. You get caught and you just pay a little, even if you haven’t paid in 10 years,” said Osmeña.
The mayor earlier slammed the Business Permit and Licensing Section of the CTO for not doing anything to improve the tedious processes in applying for a business permit.
“Because business permits are pain in the neck. As long as you pay taxes, I don’t care if you do not get police clearance. I don’t care whether your business is illegal. Just pay your taxes,” said the mayor.
Cooperation from CCCI
Antonio Chiu, president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), meanwhile, assured that their group is doing its part in helping businesses, especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs), process and get their business permits from City Hall.
“It is part of CCCI advocacy to pay the proper taxes and this includes paying local taxes to the LGU (local government unit) and get a business permit,” Chiu told Cebu Daily News in a statement.
“In fact, this subject is an important part of the KMME (Kapatid Mentor Me) program the Chamber holds in partnership with DTI (Department of Trade and Industry). This program teaches MSMEs to go into business the right way.”
But Osmeña revealed there are more business establishments in the city that have failed to pay their taxes, and will likely be shut down by the city government.
“It’s more than that (10,000). We’ve just been doing an estimate. For me, I will not allow them to open within two years,” he added.
Reward System
The mayor said he was going to create a task force that would shut down erring business establishments and also implement a reward system for anyone who could provide leads on delinquent taxpayers.
“That’s why we’re going to try to solidify and maybe develop a reward system. You report to us. And there’s a private-army-of-sorts and see to it that these offices remain closed,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña has earlier said he would name Raquel Arce, the present chief of the Prevention Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) team, as task force head and was now in the process of putting together its team members.