Thursday, June 05, 2008 Capitol treasurer says 2 electric cooperatives owe Province franchise, real property taxes
TWO electric cooperatives in Cebu Province have incurred about P131 million in unpaid franchise and real property taxes.
Capitol Treasurer Roy Salubre told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that the Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) II has P66.2 million in unpaid franchise taxes from 1992 to the present.
That amount formed part of the P69 million that Cebeco II earlier questioned in a court case filed in 2006, seeking to lower the franchise taxes the Province demanded.
Cebeco II recently paid P2.8 million as partial payment for its franchise taxes, the treasurer said.
Re-computation
The court has yet to rule on the motion of Cebeco II for re-computation of the unpaid taxes, Salubre added.
Also, Cebeco I and II owe the Provincial Government about P65 million in real property taxes.
In his letter to the Cebu Provincial Board dated April 28, Salubre said that Cebeco I owes P55,331,710 and Cebeco II P10,506,770.
The Provincial Government already auctioned off some of Cebeco I and II properties to recover their unpaid taxes. These included machinery transformers, electric distribution poles, conductors and devices, among others.
Electric cooperatives recently came under fire amid complaints that they are asking for too much in subsidies from local government units.
Warning
Cebeco II was also accused of extorting P2 million from a Korean group in the northern town of Medellin. But Cebeco II general manager Peter Alan Señeres earlier said the amount was for the electrification of the Korean Retirement Village project.
The Provincial Government has warned delinquent taxpayers to settle their obligations, or it will pursue its plan to auction off their properties.
The Capitol treasurer’s office had issued warrants of levy to various individuals and companies across the province that refused to heed demand letters.
With that strategy, Salubre said taxpayers were forced to settle their tax obligations.
The Provincial Government collected P4.48 million in franchise taxes in 2007.
This year, Capitol collected P2.5 million in franchise taxes from January to May. It also collected P15.6 million in real property taxes from January to April 2007.
Last year, the Provincial Government collected P247 million in real property taxes.
That figure indicates a 95.79 percent collection efficiency, based on the P257-million collection target for 2006. (GMD)
