- Advertisement -

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

THE City Treasurer’s Office has started imposing a 15-percent increase in local taxes based on the city’s 2015 Codified Ordinance of the city contrary to Mayor Oscar Moreno’s assurance that taxes would not shoot up this year.

- Advertisement -

City treasurer Glenn Bañez on Friday revealed that local taxes were increased using a “presumptive income level technique” based on the Codified Ordinance in an effort to achieve a P400-million collection target by Jan. 20, the deadline for the renewal of business permits.

He said the 15-percent across-the-board increase, based on the 2015 Codified Ordinance, is considered non-debatable.

Bañez said a major problem facing local governments is the under-declaration of gross sales and so, based on the “tecnique,” if an establishment had gross sales of P100 thousand in the previous year, it is presumed that it’s new target is P115 thousand.

“Kung dunay mohangyo, puwede sila nga mosulat kanamo dinhi sa City Treasurer’s Office, then we will discuss it,” Banez said.

Before 2016 ended, Mayor Moreno assured that the city council’s approval of the P4.5-billion budget for city hall for  2017 would not mean an increase in local taxes. He said there would be no tax increase, and no new taxes to be imposed by the local government.

Bañez said the  presumptive income level is also based on the memorandum of agreement signed by Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Finance (DOF), and the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).

“There were observations that under-declarations can range anywhere from 10 percent to 80 percent. This is crucial since the basis for computing the tax due is the amount of gross sales declared,” he said.

This year, under the new system, if the taxpayer pays in advance the real property tax, city hall would give a 20-percent discount.

“In our new online system, mahibalo na gyud ang business community kung pila gyud ang ilang bayronon karon. They can even pay online, and then we will text them that we already received their payments,” Bañez said.

Disclaimer

Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.

- Advertisement -