CEBU City Hall voiced concern over the planned transfer of the headquarters of two聽 Aboitiz companies聽 to Luzon.
Acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo said the city may lose P5.4 million in business taxes and other taxes the company pays to Cebu City.
鈥淓xactly how much the city would actually lose in terms of taxes would be known when they file their application for retirement.聽 By then we will know what business they transfer to Manila,鈥� she said.
Businesses are required to file a retirement application fore they could formally cease聽 operations in the city.
鈥淭he retirement application is like a clearance聽 that informs聽 a local government unit to be prepared to lose income from a certain company,鈥� Camarillo said.
Xavier 鈥淭xabi鈥� Aboitiz, chief human resource and quality officer,聽 announced last Tuesday that they are transferring the corporate headquarters of Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) and Aboitiz Power Corp.聽 to Manila, a move that would affect some of their 700 employees when the transfer is completed by June 2013.
He said 70 percent of their profits now come from businesses in Luzon, where their market and customers for electric power are located.
But聽 Aboitiz and Co., the mother company, will stay in聽 Cebu with their corporate office in Banilad while聽 core teams will continue聽 services to other Aboitiz Group units based in Cebu and Mindanao.
Camarillo said the聽 transfer would mean a loss of聽 tax revenue.
For this year alone, AEV paid Cebu City聽 P3.7 million in business taxes while Aboitiz Power paid P1.7 million.
鈥淭axes from these two companies are among the revenue sources that the city identified to fund its 2012 budget,鈥� said Camarillo.
Mayor Michael Rama聽 said he was聽 more worried about lost employment opportunities. Rama said he understands the decision of聽 Aboitiz executives and the difficulty of having to travel from聽 Cebu to Manila to run their business.