NEWS BRIEFS

AWARD FOR COKALIONG

BUSINESSMAN Edgar Cokaliong should be given a posthumous award during the city’s Charter Day celebration next year instead of having a street named after him.

Cebu City Councilor Margot Osmeña suggested this as she opposed councilor Edgardo Labella’s proposed ordinance to rename the 3rd avenue in General Maxilom Avenue Extension in Cebu City as Edgar Cokaliong Avenue.

Osmeña, vice chairperson of the Cultural Historical Affairs Commission, said the commission was endorsing the recognition of the late businessman’s contributions to the city by giving him a posthumous award.

Cokaliong gave scholarships to poor but deserving students in the city through his foundation and was cited for helping advance the city’s economic growth.

Osmeña said the award would be more appropriate because renaming a street may set a precedent for other businessmen lobbying to have a street named after them./Correspondent Edison A. delos Angeles

P17.9M overpaid

SM Cebu may not have to pay for amusement tax for a while after the firm found out that it had overpaid the Cebu City government P17.9 million in amusement taxes.

Cebu City Councilor Margot Osmeña, finance committee chairperson, said this was discovered after Cebu City continued to collect the 30 percent amusement tax despite Congress passing an amendment last 2009 slashing the amusement tax from 30 percent to 10 percent.

In their Aug. 31, 2011, letter, SM Prime Holdings Inc. requested a tax credit for the excess tax paid.

For the period starting Sept. 2, 2009, to June 30, 2010, SM has accumulated P17.9 million in overpayment after it continued paying 30 percent of its amusement tax.

“They may ask for a refund and continue to pay at the rate of 10 percent or they just might use P 17.9 million in over payment for their amusement tax as their payment in the future,” Osmeña said./Correspondent Edison A. delos Angeles