Treasurer's office collects P922.38M in business taxes

The Cebu City Government has earned close to P1 billion from its collection of business taxes.

According to records from the City Treasurer's Office (CTO), the City collected P922.38 million from the renewal of business permits and registration of new businesses.

The amount is higher compared to the P774.04 million that CTO collected during the same period last year.

From Jan. 4 to 31, CTO put up a one-stop shop for the renewal of business permits at Robinsons Galleria Cebu.

The income from business taxes is among the sources of funds that the executive department determined to finance the City's approved P7.2-annual budget for this year.

The executive department expects to raise P5.4 billion from internal sources that include, among others, P1.5 billion from business taxes, P1.6 billion from real property taxes, and P1 billion from non-tax revenues for the source of funds for the annual budget.

For this year, the City has assessed 28,352 business establishments but only 26,870 were able to pay their dues during the scheduled renewal last month.

City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo said they will send notices to the 1,482 remaining establishments that have yet to renew their business permits.

Camarillo said there's still enough time to reach their target collection for this year.

The CTO accepts business applications and business permit renewals on a quarterly basis. The next one is in April.