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Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Realty taxes go up 30% next year
CEBU CITY -- Days before the start of a new fiscal year, the Cebu City Treasurer's Office announced "with regret" the implementation of the revised schedule of market values for real properties.
This means higher realty taxes await taxpayers for the first quarter of 2006.
In a paid advertisement approved by Mayor Tomas Osmeña and published in Sun.Star Cebu Tuesday, Acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo said this would mean an added burden of "around 30 percent higher of what we are currently paying on our real estate taxes."
"We hope you will understand. This ordinance was supposed to take effect in 2003. Its implementation was, however, suspended several times. We can no longer suspend its implementation any further," the ad said.
It added: "The last assessment was made in 1999. In the meantime, the values of properties have geometrically increased. In fact, the 2002 assessment is already way below its market value. We hope for your cooperation."
City Tax Ordinance 99, which serves as basis for the new assessment of all residential, commercial and industrial lands, will take effect on January 1, 2006.
The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), for its part, believes an increase is just fair, as long as it follows the Chamber's proposal on how to go about the implementation.
Chamber president Robert Go said CCCI's tax committee had sat down with the City's tax division to discuss the matter.
The Chamber proposed that the increase in realty taxes should not be done across the board, but should vary, depending on a property's location.
Go said areas in the city differ in their economic viability, and an increase in realty taxes must take this into consideration.
Economic activities in a depressed area are not the same as those in a highly commercialized zone, Go told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview.
Deferred
In one of the budget hearings held last month for the 2006 annual budget, Camarillo told the City Council that the treasury office will definitely implement Ordinance 99, so they will be able to meet their target collections.
The treasury gave a 65 percent projection of the realty taxes, which the committee on budget and finance described as "below par."
The executive department's decision to implement the revised schedule of the market values for real properties prompted Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera to withdraw her proposed ordinance deferring its implementation last month.
Pesquerra declined to comment about the tax increase when Sun.Star Cebu called her Tuesday night.
The ordinance, which was set for implementation in January 2003, had been deferred to Jan. 1, 2004 and then moved again to Jan. 1, 2005. (GAC with LPN/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(December 28, 2005 issue)
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