The Capitol is confident that operations of the provincial government will not be affected by the looming Internal Revenue cuts as 16 new cities across the country gain higher\u00a0\u00a0 IRA allotments for fiscal year 2012.<\/p>\n
Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre told Cebu Daily 黑料社 that Capitol has not been \u201cIRA dependent.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the governor pushed for \u201cbetter revenue collection and creating more economic enterprises through public-private partnerships\u201d as Capitol\u2019s solutions to a cut of\u00a0 at least P77.4 million next year.<\/p>\n
Last April, Garcia announced solutions to cover up for the loss of at\u00a0 least\u00a0 40 percent in real property tax collections from Naga, Bogo and Carcar cities.<\/p>\n
Garcia said Ciudad\u2019s proprietor Fifth Avenue will rent the lot at P77 per square meter and share one and one half of\u00a0 its gross profit to the province.<\/p>\n
The Central Command lot in barangay Apas will soon be offered for development.<\/p>\n
The mayors of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities said their localities can weather\u00a0 slashed IRAs.<\/p>\n
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he fully understands the need for the IRA cuts, which would be added to the IRAs of\u00a0 the newly created cities.<\/p>\n
Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said the cut would affect the delivery of basic services in the city while Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Radaza said the amount that will be cut off is too large.<\/p>\n
But Cortes said they will cope by maximizing on economic activity especially in the city\u2019s new market and slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n
Radaza, meanwhile, said she is looking at cost-cutting measures but will\u00a0 discuss the IRA cut with department heads and ask for suggestions to cope with the cuts.<\/p>\n
In a memorandum dated June 27, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the computation of the budget for local government units in 2012 will take into account any entries of judgment made by the Supreme Court on the status of 16 towns that had been vying for cityhood.<\/p>\n
According to the memorandum, provinces in Central Visayas have to share the amount of P3.9 billion, cities P4.9 billion, towns P6.3 billion and barangays 3.8 billion.<\/p>\n
Cebu City is set to lose at least P52 million of its P1-billion IRA share in 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not think about losing (P52 million of our IRA share),\u201d Rama said, adding that he\u00a0 still intends to pursue his plan to have a P10 billion budget for next year.<\/p>\n
Rep. Tomas Osme\u00f1a of Cebu City\u2019s south district said Cebu City would survive\u00a0 an IRA cut.<\/p>\n
He said he adopted a policy for the city to be self-sufficient when he was still mayor.<\/p>\n
Also, he left a surplus of P1.5 billion when his term ended on June 30, 2010.<\/p>\n
Osme\u00f1a said Cebu City can afford to lose P52 million.\u00a0 He said the amount was nothing compared to the\u00a0 P300 million that the city may lose after it lost two expropriation cases (see story below).<\/p>\n
Rama said Cebu City will \u201ccontinue with efficiency of our collection and adopt more projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rama said with\u00a0 this kind of mentality, \u201cat the end of the day you won\u2019t feel losing P52 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radaza said some\u00a0 projects may be hampered due to the cost cutting and some employees will be laid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would really be affected because the amount that they will cut is too much and would have funded many things.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she said they will look for other alternatives to raise funds.<\/p>\n
Part of the solution is for the city government to intensify the promotion of tourism and collection of taxes, she said.<\/p>\n
Cortes said Mandaue\u2019s\u00a0 full-automation project to improve tax collection is timely and will somehow compensate for lost IRA. \/Carmel Loise Matus, Doris C. Bongcac and Jucell Marie P. Cuyos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Capitol is confident that operations of the provincial government will not be affected by the looming Internal Revenue cuts as 16 new cities across the country gain higher IRA allotments for fiscal year 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1242,1227],"tags":[8700],"byline":[],"source":[206068],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n