Tacloban seeks ‘cedula’ income

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—Residents of this city have been urged to secure community tax certificates (CTC), or “cedulas,” to help improve the city’s financial condition.

The city government, a highly urbanized city with an income of more than P800 million before Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” has been experiencing financial difficulties after it was devastated by the storm on Nov. 8, 2013.

City treasurer Zosima Cordano said the residents could help their city earn additional income through the issuance of community tax certificates.

According to the Local Government Code of the Philippines and the country’s Revenue Code, the following are required to secure community tax certificates:

–          Those who are 18 years and above who have worked consecutively for 30 days.

–          Those engaged in businesses or have occupations.

–          Real property owners.

A CTC fee ranges from P25 to P5,000, depending on the income of the person.

According to Cordano, Tacloban has a population of more than 200,000 and if half of those eligible to have community tax certificates are to secure cedulas even for only P25 each—the amount charged to students—the city government could earn P25 million.

The tax revenue could help the city government, which has been forced to retrench more than half of its 1,000 job order workers and set aside major projects save for those related to rehabilitation due to Yolanda, she added.

Last year, the city government earned P5.9 million from CTC collection, Cordano said.

Business permits

But from Jan. 1 to Feb. 17, 2014, it collected only P387,624.

Tacloban also registered a decline in the collection of fees for business permits since only 15 percent or 1,976 of the 13,465 businesses had been issued permits by the city government in 2013 for renewal of licenses as of Feb. 27.

This year, the city government collected only P42.4 million from business permits, a substantial decrease compared with last year’s almost P200 million, Cordano said.

From its previous locally generated income of more than P400 million, the city government is now projecting just around P150 million in income this year.

Tacloban also receives about P478.5 million as tax share from the national government through the internal revenue allotment.