High-rise buildings over Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Treasurer’s Office revealed that they have collected P820 million worth of taxes for the early months of 2022.
City Treasurer Mare Vae Reyes said that these taxes were still based on the sales or income of businesses in 2021, and had been paid in line with the renewal of permits.
Reyes said that they were hopeful that they would reach the target P2 billion collection this 2022 after failing to reach their target in 2021.
“Actually, it has been a challenging year, or years. We started last year, it was a difficult year to collect because of the pandemic and then we again had this Odette, it has become more difficult for us to collect. We made the target sa (in) 2021 based on 2020 and we did not hit our target of P2 billion, P1.6 billion ra ato nacollect (It was only P1.6 billion that we collected),” said Reyes.
“But this year, we are very happy to announce na we have collected P820 million for business taxes alone. So we are very hopeful of shooting above the target,” she said.
Furthermore, the city witnessed 5,290 new businesses opening in 2021, mostly in the food and beverage sector, which gives more hope for additional revenues for the city government.
The opening of new businesses surpassed the closure of some, which was reported to be at 2,958 businesses closed in the same year.
The City Treasurer’s Office sees this as proof that the economy is improving, even if it was slightly halted by Typhoon Odette in the last weeks of 2021.
Reyes said that the extension of the deadlines also massively helped the different businesses, and she thanked the City Council for allowing the extension of the payment of taxes and renewal of business permits by at least 15 days.
She said that the business permit deadline had been moved to February 28.
She also said that they would be open for renewal of business permits on holidays (February 24 and 25) and on Saturdays at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.
In order to further help the businesses, the Business and Permit Licensing Office (BPLO) will release the renewal permits even with minimum requirements as long as the establishment assures they will comply with other requirements within 60 days.
Businesses need only submit their old permit, barangay clearance, Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) certificate, proof of use of business address, and payment of business taxes.
They need to submit additional requirements within 60 days such as sanitary, fire, environmental permits, and other permits corresponding to their nature of business such as meat inspection permits for meat shops.
BPLO head, Jared Limquiaco, assured businesses that their office would help them especially amid these trying times post-typhoon.
“We are here to help you labi na sa nagkalisod gyod (especially those who are finding it hard) because of unforeseen circumstances,” she said.
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