Silay City tops tax collection

SILAY City is the top tax collector among the local government units in the whole province of Negros Occidental for the first quarter of 2010.

Mayor Jose Montelibano said 95 percent of the local businesses in the city paid their taxes and that he lauded them for their support.

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Montelibano assured that the funds raised from the taxes will be given back to the people in terms of various programs and projects under his administration along with Vice Mayor Mark Andrew Golez and the rest of the city officials.

He also explained that the increase of taxes implemented by the City Government is now being used as propaganda against his administration but the prompt payment by the tax payers in the city only showed of their cooperation to the City Government.

Montelibano said the City Government increased the land tax, licenses and rental for market stalls because it was already about 19 years that it has not raised the taxes.

Local government units are supposed to implement tax adjustment every five years, but the previous administrations did not implement such increase, he said.

However, Montelibano said it's only sad to note that some of his rivals in the city do not pay their taxes while others opted to transfer their tax payments outside Silay.

"If they really care for the future of the city, why are they doing that," he said.

Montelibano also explained that "Mang Inasal", owned by his children, was purposely put up in the city to build confidence that Silay City is a potential place for business.

He said he only laughed off at his rivals who made an issue out of the business, adding that not a single centavo was spent for Mang Inasal as they strictly follow the guidelines of the Commission on Audit (COA) on spending the city's funds.

In fact to ensure transparency, they have adopted a computerized system where all the updates on the city's spending could be monitored daily, he added.

Montelibano is also hoping that more investors would put their investments in the city.

He said the City Council already gave him authority to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with a company that would put up a P1 billion investment for a hydro electric plant in Silay that will generate 10 megawatts electricity.

He said that power company is necessary as it is a solution to Silay's energy problem.