With the pandemic, Mandaue City reports P500M collection shortfall

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines- With less than three months left before the year ends, the Mandaue City Treasurer’s Office is still P500 million short of its P2.8 billion collection target for the year.

Lawyer Regal Oliva, the city treasurer, said they only collected a total of P2.3 billion as of August 2020.

However, Oliva said that collection may still increase after they receive the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share amounting to P250 million.

As a result of the city’s collection shortage, Oliva said there may be a need to pass a smaller budget for 2021 and in 2022 respectively if needed.

The executive department, Oliva said, has already prepared a proposed budget of P2.5 billion for 2021.  The draft budget is P300 million less than this year’s approved budget.

Oliva said that because of the city’s budget limitations, some of its services will not be delivered to the fullest.

“We will also expect services will also be hampered, there are more people in Mandaue and more are demanding services, so please let’s just also be understanding to the government because social services and infrastructure services might really be hampered for next year. Makita nato ang [As we can see, the] long-term effect of the pandemic will not be felt this year, it will really be felt for the next 2 years.”, Oliva said.

Revenue Generation

Oliva said that the pandemic affected the city’s revenue generation efforts.

Amusement taxes dropped by at least 60 percent as a result of the closure of several establishments here due to quarantine restrictions.

Oliva also reported reductions in real property taxes and the city’s market collections.

The city government also extended tax amnesty for two months to stall owners at the Mandaue City Public Market to help in their recovery.

Oliva said the bulk of the city’s P2.3 billion revenue was from business and community taxes.

The pandemic, Oliva said, did not have much effect on the collection of community taxes because this was made in February yet or a month before the quarantine was implemented.

He also reported collecting P116 million more in this year’s business taxes.

The City Treasurer’s Office collected more than P1 billion in business taxes compared to the P900 million that was collected last year.

Business tax collection was made in January as a prerequisite for the renewal of business permits.  Business taxes are based on gross receipts issued in 2019. / dcb