Council okays P299M supplemental budget

THE Cebu City Council approved on Tuesday additional funds amounting to P299 million for the executive department, the bulk of which is intended to pay the compromise settlement to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for basic tax deficiency.

This is the third Supplemental Budget (SB) that the administration of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña submitted this year.

The city government has an approved budget of P6.2 billion for 2018.

The city will be paying P188,419,616.44 to BIR and another P55 million for the city’s free hospitalization and medicine programs, an P8 million financial assistance to Barangay Banilad, P1.5 million for some workers’ terminal leave benefits, and P1 million for repairs of artesian wells.

But yesterday’s approval of the third SB did not conclude without a 30-minute discussion, with several opposition councilors asking the council’s committee on budget and finance to shed light as to why BIR, a national government agency, is taxing the local government of Cebu City.

As a result, Councilor Jose Daluz III and Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, requested the City Legal Office to appeal the compromise settlement before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA).

“Because my concern here is it may cripple the local government’s performance on delivering basic services,” Pesquera added.

During the budget hearing last September 5, Councilor Margarita Osmeña said the payment due to BIR stemmed from taxable transactions in relation to the sale of lots in the South Road Properties (SRP) during the previous years.

If the city fails to pay its compromise settlement to the BIR, Councilor Osmeña said the city may be compelled to pay a bigger amount which can run up to P1.2 billion.