THE Visayan Electric Company (Veco) is asking the Cebu City government to waive over P2.5 million worth of surcharge and interest for its franchise tax in the third quarter of 2009.
This developed after Veco received a Notice of Assessment from the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) last August informing them of the surcharge of P2,278,232.09 and an interest of P227,823.20 for a nine-day delay of payment of its franchise tax in that period.
“Please understand that Veco has always been conscientious in remitting the taxes due the City of Cebu and it is not Veco’s intention to postpone or evade payment of taxes. The late payment in July 2009 was an oversight that will not happen again,” said Nelson Perez, Veco assistant vice president for finance, accounting, PBR reporting and compliance, in a letter to Mayor Michael Rama dated Oct. 8, 2013.
He said that before 2010, they’ve been paying their franchise tax for the first and second quarters of the year on January 20 and the third and fourth quarters on July 20. In effect, they’ve been paying in advance the taxes due for the second and fourth quarters which are supposed to be due on April 20 and October 20, respectively.
overlooked
Due to personnel movements in 2009, Perez said, that the franchise tax due on July 20, 2009 was “inadvertently overlooked” and was paid only on July 29. Veco paid P22,237,823.35 franchise tax for the third quarter of 2009.
Rama, however, said that Veco should still pay.
“They are not poor, they can pay for that,” Rama said in Cebuano.
He said that the city needs money, which the it can use to help repair the damage brought by the recent earthquake.
In her Aug. 20, 2013 Notice of Assessment to Veco, Tessie Camarillo, Asst. City Treasurer for Operations, told Veco to settle the delinquency within five days from receipt of the notice.
The City Council who discussed the Veco issue during last week’s regular session decided to refer this to the CTO and the City Legal Office for review. /Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita