City misses P4.6-billion tax target

Even before the year ends, the Cebu City government admitted that it failed to meet its collection target of P4.6 billion.

As of Oct. 15, the City Treasurer’s Office raised P3.2 billion, which is P1.4 billion short of the collection target.

City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo said they only expect to raise P500 million more in revenues to raise the city’s revenue collection to a total of P3.7 billion.

The failure in hitting the collection target also means the city faces the risk of running short by at least P800 million of its P4.5 billion budgetary requirement for this year.

“We still have collections to make pero dili na nato makuha tanan,” she told the city council in a budget hearing held yesterday afternoon at the council’s caucus room.

Camarillo told the council that the city fell short in their revenue targets from the South Road Properties (SRP), Citom, real property taxes and ecozone revenues.

“So far we have already identified the shortage because of over estimates,” said Councilor Margot Osmeña, the council’s budget committee chairperson.

Councilor Jose Daluz said the shortage occurred because “we were planning more than what we are collecting.” Despite this, City Budget Officer Nelfa Briones said the city will not run short out of funds even if they fail to meet its collection target of P4.6 billion.

She explained that while P4.5 billion have been budgeted for 2011, about P4.1 billion have been obligated so far.  Briones also said even with the shortfall, the city can intensify its tax collection efforts.

New revenue sources have also been identified and Briones will reveal these to the council when they call for a budget hearing to discuss the 2012 executive budget.

CTO would fund the 2012 budget from revenue targets, which they hope to earn from its economic enterprises, P4 billion; opening a credit line, P2 billion; sales of properties, P1 billion.

Camarillo has also identified P4.8-billion worth of revenues from taxes and other income including the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment share of P1 billion.

But councilors Daluz and Osmeña warned the administration against spending more than what it could afford.