Lapu to earn P5M from occupational permit fees

The Lapu-Lapu City government is expected to earn at least P5 million yearly from the P100 occupational permit fees they expect to collect from an estimated 50,000 people working in the Mactan Export Processing Zone (Mepz).

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza said yesterday that the fees collected will go to the city’s funds and this will be spent on services offered by the city such as improving barangay or city roads, street lighting, and other basic services.

“It will just return to the public, their taxes will help improve the city’s roads for convenience of travel, fast-track services and others.” Radaza said.

The city government imposed the fee through ordinance No. 070-2007 otherwise known as “The Revised Lapu-Lapu City Revenue Code” which was amended by the city council ratifying the “compromise agreement” of the city and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), which allowing the collection of the fee from Mepz employees.

existing ordinance

Yuri Benluan, the city legal officer of Lapu-Lapu City, said that the ordinance has already been existing for several years.

Benluan said but when the city imposed the tax on Mepz employees then, Peza filed a case in court saying that the Mepz firms are covered by Peza privileges.

Last year, the Lapu-Lapu City government and Peza reached a compromise and the deductions started this year.

Benluan said employees of Mepz locators that were not really involved in the import and export industry must pay the P100 OPF each year as it was also collected from other companies outside Mepz and within Lapu-Lapu City.

However, companies that were covered by the privileges of Peza will only pay the P5,000 community assistance fee at the start and P1,000 each year.

This year’s collection will be until December, companies who will fail to comply will be sanctioned and fined.

Maricel Ycot, one of the hundreds of production workers of a garment factory in Mepz, said she was irked by the deduction as this would add to the taxes automatically deducted to her monthly salary. /Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza