Capitol seeks P100 million property tax from Cebeco

Aside from at least P69 million in franchise tax, Capitol also wants to collect approximately P100 million in real property tax from the Cebu Electric Cooperative.

The P100-million tax was based on the ongoing assessment conducted by the Provincial Assessor's Office on the real properties of the electric cooperative.

Provincial treasurer Roy Salubre said they have already notified Cebeco last week of its initial real property tax dues amounting to P7 million, which has accumulated over the years since the effectivity of the Local Government Code in 1991.

He said the P7-million computation was arrived at based only on what was disclosed by Cebeco in its tax declaration. Cebeco only has until next week to settle its franchise tax obligations amounting to at least P67 million that dates back to 1992 until 2004.

A warrant of levy for collection of such franchise tax dues was already issued to Cebeco a few weeks ago.

Salubre said that under the law, the local treasurer is authorized to proceed with publicly advertising for sale Cebeco's real properties within 30 days after the serving of the warrant of levy.

But so far, there has been no move from Cebeco to seek for a compromise agreement from the governor over its tax dues. Cebeco officials only requested for a copy of the Provincial Board ordinance passed in 1992 on the local tax levy.

Cebeco officials, however, reportedly failed to keep up with their promise to settle for a compromise agreement two years ago.

Over the years, Cebeco refused to pay franchise tax to Capitol, saying that electric cooperatives are tax-free. But a recent court decision on a case involving the Province of Laguna says otherwise.

As for the collection of business tax, Cebeco only settled its dues with the municipality of Dumanjug where the Cebeco-1 office is located.

It, however, claimed overpayment and later filed charges before the Barili trial court against the Dumanjug municipal government and Salubre.

Nevertheless, Salubre said they are presently pursuing for payment of business tax to each municipality where Cebeco is currently servicing and not just to towns where the Cebeco 1, 2, and 3 offices are located.

Cebeco is at present servicing at least 34 towns in the province. - Cristina C. Birondo/LPM