Mandaue holds permits of City Time Square tenants

The Mandaue City government has withheld the issuance of business permits to all establishments at the City Time Square and some others along A.S. Fortuna Street in addition to three others previously reported, citing violations on city regulations and ordinances.

This was the result of the assessments made by the Mandaue City Treasurer's Office (CTO), adding that the establishments have a "defective contract of lease."

For City Time Square, the issue lies with the establishment's “mother lease” and not on violations committed by its tenants.

Oliva said the CTO is waiting for advice from the Office of the Mayor whether they have settled the issue with the management of City Time Square.

Once they are given the go signal, Oliva said CTO will release the permits of all the business establishments renting in City Time Square.

City Treasurer Regal Oliva said that the owners can still operate their businesses as the city government is giving them 90 days to comply with the necessary requirements for the permits.

Oliva received instructions from higher officials of the city government that some of the business permits will be put on hold because the CTO found out that these businesses have committed violations.

“As of today, I have received instructions that there might be some businesses that are held in abeyance. In other words, we are not releasing their permits because they may have violated some regulations and ordinances in the city,” Oliva said.

He said that one of the requirements of business establishments is to present a contract of lease as they have seen that most leasors also do not have permits to lease out their properties.

“Mangolekta ra man na sila'g abang mao nga we are requiring them to present their contract of lease so that we can also tax the leasor to be fair,” Oliva explained.

Most of the time, Oliva said, leasors are the ones that do not comply with the necessary taxes.

CTO targets to renew permits of 14,000 business establishments this year. However, Oliva disclosed that only close to 10,000 business establishments have processed permit renewals so far.

“There might be 4,000 that are delinquent. Delinquent meaning not necessarily that they are open. Maybe they might have closed already pero wa sila ni-retire dinhi so delinquent gihapon na sila,” Oliva explained.

This year, CTO collected a total of P486,396,000 from business taxes, higher than last year's P418.959,000.