By LITO RULONA
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents
COUNCILOR Leon Gan yesterday called on the city’s taxpayers to seek a refund from city hall in view of the Department of Justice’s decision to trash Mayor Oscar Moreno’s appeal. Gan said this after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima upheld the 2015 tax code which the city council approved despite strong objections from the Moreno administration. But the Moreno administration is not raising the white flag even as city treasurer Glenn Bañez said city hall would go to court to question the legality of City Ordinance no. 12860-2014, otherwise known as the 2015 Cagayan de Oro City Revenue Code. “The best thing to do, especially for businessmen who have been burdened by the local taxes collected from them, is to ask for a refund,” Gan said.
Gan also called on Mayor Oscar Moreno to start collecting taxes based of the 2015 Revenue Code that was approved by the city council on Oct. 27, 2014.
He said the refunds should cover the first two quarters of the year. As of this writing, the city council was set on passing a resolution asking the City Treasurer’s Office to issue tax credits so the refunds could be made through deductions.
“They should really ask for a refund especially if they overpaid in January,” he said. In a five-page decision signed by de Lima, Moreno’s plea against the implementation of the new tax code was dismissed due to lack of merit. She said the tax ordinance was based on the Local Government Code, and all requirements were followed. Moreno has yet to issue a statement on de Lima’s ruling at presstime. Bañez, for his part, said the local executive department has yet to receive an official copy of the de Lima’s May ruling. He however said any decision from the DOJ could not be considered final, adding that city hall would like bring the matter to court. “Resolving the issue would take a long process. This could even reach the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court,” Bañez said.
He maintained that the city council illegally approved the tax ordinance, adding that requirements were not followed.
Until the courts could resolve the issue, he said city hall would continue implementing the tax code passed by the city council during the Emano administration. As of June 18, 2015, he said, city hall’s revenues ballooned to P1.778 billion, higher by P573 million compared to the first two quarters of 2014. He said the local government’s annual income this year would exceed the P2.08-billion budget approved by the city council before year-end. “We managed to collect these without raising rates. These tax rates were based on the old revenue code. Walay increase sa tax rate,” Bañez said. He said he was confident city hall would raise more revenues this year and next year, and justify Moreno’s P3.8-billion budget target for 2016.
