WITH Jan. 11, 2023, deadline just weeks away, Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy called on the City Hall bureaucracy to double down on efforts to persuade the city’s taxpayers to avail of his administration’s amnesty program.

“I’m asking my fellow workers at City Hall to help remind our city’s taxpayers (to avail of our tax amnesty offer and) file their renewal of business permits. I’m also asking the public to report to me if they have problems (in processing their permits) and I will address them. Hence, I’m asking you City Hall employees to serve our people well,” Mayor Uy told the City Hall bureaucracy in Visayan on Monday.

PUBLIC AWARENESS. Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy reminds City Hall’s bureaucracy to do their share to inform and persuade the city’s taxpayers to avail of City Hall’s tax amnesty program during Monday morning’s flag-raising program. CIO photo by Roel Felicitas

Mayor Uy said this during Monday morning’s flag-raising program as City Hall’s Oro Trade Investments Promotions Center (Oro-TIPC) met on Monday to thresh out details on City Hall’s public information campaign on the tax amnesty program as incorporated under the Tax Relief and Tax Incentive/Rebate ordinances. The tax relief ordinance is set to take effect on Dec. 7.

The tax incentives ordinances will take effect on Dec. 15. In last month’s forum spearheaded by the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc., (Oro Chamber) business leaders in the city and Misamis Oriental asked for an extension of the Uy administration’s tax amnesty program up to Dec. 31, 2023.

In response, City Hall officials led by City Administrator Roy Hilario Raagas and Councilor George Goking — who chairs the 20th City Council’s trade and commerce committee — urged business leaders to file their position paper to Mayor Uy for deliberation. Oro TIPC chief John Asuncion also called on business owners to file their certificates of delinquency early ahead of the Jan. 11 deadline.

Ordinance No. 14389-2022 or the tax rebate ordinance grants a 20 percent rebate or discount to advanced prompt payment of real property taxes while Ordinance No. 14385 or the tax relief ordinance grants condonation of penalties to real property and business owners, stallholders in public markets and terminals and traffic violators. (Stephen Capillas with additional report from Jo-Ann Sablad of the City Information Office)