Tax holidays hamper LGU from raising annual budget

MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes has proposed a P1.7-billion budget for 2013, which is P118 million higher than the 2012 budget.

The bulk of the amount will go to the general fund, with an allocation of P1.474 billion.

Under the proposed budget, the public market will get P91.873 million while the city hospital will receive P48.308 million.

Some P89.678 million, or 20 percent of the City’s projected share from the Internal Revenue Allotment, is allocated for development projects.

The slaughterhouse will get P19.04 million while the city sports complex will get P7.15 million.

“A major segment in the proposed budget is devoted to the pursuit of goals and objectives of assuring delivery of basic services and facilities,” Mayor Cortes said
in a letter sent the City Council’s committee on budget and finance last Monday.

The City can increase its budget by only P118 million because it is losing millions a month from tax moratoriums, said City Treasurer Regal Oliva.

City Hall has granted a one-year tax moratorium on tricycle operators to allow them to raise money and shift from tricycle to multicabs or jeepneys.

The City is also giving stall holders at the public market until next year to pay their lease rights fees. The moratorium aims to allow vendors to recover from their losses from the transfer to the new public market.

Realty tax

“There will be no (significant increase in the annual budget) until all revenue measures are implemented,” Oliva said.

He raised the need to increase the city’s real property tax.

Oliva said it is up to the City Council to enact measures that will raise the City’s revenues.

The proposed 2013 budget of P1,730,556,392 includes the allocation of P120.3 million
for debt servicing and P27 million for the barangays.

Calamity

The budget is 7.3 percent higher than the 2012 budget, which is P1,612,547,320.

Some P78.209 million or five percent of the proposed budget will be set aside as calamity funds.

The appropriation for the personal services is set at P272.910 million.

Cortes said employee benefits, aid to barangays, loan amortization, maintenance of city roads and bridges, and anti-drug campaign are allotted a fair share of the budget.

City Budget Officer Lamberto Marababol, in an earlier interview, said the proposed budget carried all the proposals from each City Hall department.