Monday, November 26, 2007 Higher fees mulled for Lapu
RESIDENTS will feel one direct effect of Lapu-Lapu City’s new status as a highly urbanized city if the City Council approves a request of the local civil registrar to raise the fees for certificates of live birth, marriage and death.
The move has the support of Mayor Arturo Radaza, who asked the council to enact an ordinance authorizing the registrar’s office to collect P50 for each certificate, instead of just P15, as soon as the City starts implementing the Batch Request Entry System.
“My request is only P20, but if it has been changed to P50, that is still a reasonable level because we have been collecting the P15 rate since 1992,” local civil registrar Cipriano Flores told Sun.Star Cebu.
He added that other municipalities and cities have long been collecting between P20 and P50 for each certificate.
The proposal is being studied by the committees of finance and laws and order for possible implications on other taxes.
Minimal
Vice Mayor Mario Amores said there may be no need to conduct a public consultation on the proposal because the increase being sought is minimal.
Those who opposed the City’s conversion to a highly urbanized city during the June 21 plebiscite were worried about higher taxes or fees.
But Radaza and other city officials had assured that if there is such an increase, Oponganons will be consulted in a public hearing before they approve it.
Flores said the increase is long overdue, but he made the proposal only this year.
At P15 since 1992, “compared to Mandaue and Cebu, our fees are much lower. And we have to increase it now that we are highly urbanized,” he added. (AIV)
