THE City Treasurer's Office of Cagayan de Oro is urging businessmen in the city to renew their business permits the soonest possible so to avoid imposition of penalties.

"I would like to urge them to come to the office sooner before January 20, the deadline, to avoid possible imposition of penalties kay (since) so far, there is no intention to postpone the deadline. So it's still January 20," said City Treasurer Ramon Antonio Mendoza.

Mendoza said the penalties of those who failed to renew their permits before or on January 20 will be a 25 percent surcharge on the total amount and a 2 percent monthly interest.

According to the city treasurer, the renewal of business permits can be done either by visiting the City Treasurer's Office or via online.

"Ang renewal sa (In the renewal of) business permit, if they want to come to the office, they can go directly to the kiosk at the lobby. They can immediately get their assessment there, tax assessment, just by keying their current business permit number so they can get their assessment now there," Mendoza said.

The City Treasurer's Office has a total of four kiosks in their lobby, even as businessmen can also get their assessment online by logging in to cagayandeoro.gov.ph.

"So kung makuha na nila ang ilang (once they got their) assessment online, they can pay also online and they can present that to the Business Permit and Licensing Division for the issuance of their business permit," Mendoza said.

He added that businessmen can get their business permit in less than an hour or the longest in 2 hours, depending on their queuing time.

Mendoza said they will be able to assist businessmen from morning until 5 p.m.

"But we are extending until 7 for those sa hindi pa na accommodate (who have not yet accommodated) by 5. So we are trying to accommodate all before the end of the day," Mendoza added.

Already, the annual renewal of business permits started on Wednesday, January 3.

It will end on January 20.