CEBU City Hall’s Legal Office will study a request by the University of the Visayas (UV) to waive the accumulated interest and penalty charges of the school’s taxes.
The school’s statement of accounts showed that it will have to pay the city P2,190,000, with interest and penalty charges from 2011 up to 2014.
But UV wanted to settle only the remaining balance of P12,733. Jose R. Gullas, the school’s executive vice president and vice president for finance, wrote the Office of the Mayor and his letter was forwarded to the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO).
“The unpaid balance pertaining to the 2011 assessment was just an oversight. The personnel in-charge in the processing and settlement of the permits, taxes and licenses went AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and eventually abandoned her post, so there was no turn-over of records and accountabilities,” Gullas stated in the letter.
CTO said they cannot grant the request of UV for lack of authority since under the Local Government Code, the City Council is empowered to grant tax exemption, tax incentive or tax relief, through an ordinance.
City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said the CTO finds UV’s position tenable and recommended to the City Council that the request be given due consideration.
In their session last Wednesday, the City Council then sent the letter to the City Legal Office for review./Correspondent Nestle L. Semilla