Capitol revenues drop by 31 percent heading to end of Q3 in 2019

Cebu Provincial Capitol | CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Capitol coffers saw a 31 percent drop in their revenue collections heading to the end of the third quarter of this year, or from January to August 2019, compared to the same period in 2018.

Based on the records of the Provincial Treasurers Office, the Capitol so far collected P617,252,383.88 in revenues for the first eight months of 2019. This is lower by 31.04 percent when compared to the P805,026,682.47 collection over the same period in 2018.

The province’s sources for their revenues include taxes from businesses, regulatory fees from permits and certifications, shares from the Internal Revenue Allowance (IRA), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) like the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, sale of assets and income from the operations of the district hospitals and the Cebu South Bus Terminal

Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre explained that the decrease in the revenue collection is not a fault in their collection scheme.

Salubre said that P300 million from the 2018 collections came from the sale of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), which is now owned by the city government of Mandaue.

In August 2018, the city government of Mandaue completed its third tranche of payment for the acquisition of  CICC, which sits on a 3.2-hectare property at the North Reclamation Area (NRA) in Barangay Tipolo, Mandaue City.

Read more: Mandaue City now owns CICC

In fact, Salubre said,  the revenue collection for 2018 without the CICC sale would only be at P505 million or P112 million less than the present collection.

Among the areas that saw an increase in collection this year is the interest from capital investments of the province, revenues from the district hospital operations, and real property tax. /elb