Cebu City looks to P1B share to shore up budget
CEBU City Hall has yet to receive its P1 billion share of its joint venture agreement with Filinvest Land Inc. at the South Road Properties as well as P150 million from the auction of real properties this year.
These two amounts are said to be the biggest identified fund sources for this year’s P5.4 billion budget, acting City Treasurer Emma Villarete said yesterday.
“The joint venture remittance is given every quarter as per agreement so we will expect (the remittance from Filinvest) by end of June,” Villarete said.
She said they can determine the city’s JV share which is 10 percent of the gross sales from Filinvest’s pre-selling of their condominium units at the SRP based on the company’s latest sales records.
Filinvest executive Tristan las Marias didn’t comment on the city’s collection of its share but he told Cebu Daily News that construction of their San Remo and Alamfi Oasis developments at the SRP are still ongoing.
He said they will also launch additional buildings in Amalfi Oasis because of the fast take up of units in the residential condominium project.
“We’re full blast (with our construction) because sales are continuous. The (Rallos) case does not affect us because the lot (under lien) is not the area where we are developing our projects,” he said.
Villarete said her office is now doubling their effort in order to raise more money which the city government could use this year.
They are looking at the disposal of properties already forfeited in favor of the city because of unpaid taxes and the collection its its JV share.
“We still have until the end of the year to make the necessary collections,” she said.
Based on their March 31 collection records, CTO has so far collected P1.6 billion or 24 percent of its P6.4 billion collection target this year.
The city is still short by P4.8 billion of its collection estimates.
The city’s collection went up to P1.9 billion as of April 30.
Its March 31 collection record showed that the city’s biggest collection came from its business and other taxes worth P559.5 million or 47 percent of its collection target of P1.2 billion.
Real property tax collections amounted to P178.9 million or 32 percent of its collection target amounting to P560 million.
The city government only collected 25 percent or P232.9 million of its non tax revenue target of P943.7 million.
The CTO already collected 25 percent of the city’s 2013 Internal Revenue Allotment share of P1.1 billion from the national government worth P273.2 million and another P2 million of the city’s P75 million share from other national taxes.
But the city fell short of its P1.4 billion collection target from the sales of government lots and earned P333 million in payments made by Filinvest worth P245 million and SM worth P88 million for lots they bought at the SRP.
Villarete said Filinvest makes a yearly payment of their lot due while SM is paying the city every quarter.
Villarete sad the first and latest joint venture share which CTO received from Filinvest was the P50 million which the real estate developer turned over to the city government late last year. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac and Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap
