CEBU, Philippines – Universities and hospitals did not comment on the rates of the business tax to be collected during the public hearing prior to the passage of City Tax Ordinance CXIII in 2006.
Council Committee on Budget and Finance head councilor Jose Daluz III, who was then author of an insertion prior to the passage of City Tax Ordinance CXIII in 2006, said the said ordinance first imposed a 2.5 percent of gross sales receipts as business tax from proprietary schools and hospitals.
A public hearing was made but the representatives of the universities and hospitals did not make any comment on the rates.
Instead, Daluz said that the lawyers of the hospitals and universities who were then present, asserted their being exempted from the payment of such taxes as they are non-profit in nature.
“They were merely delving with the constitutionality of the ordinance which we hope should already be solved by the courts,” Daluz said.
In the said ordinance the 2.5 percent rate was reduced to three-fourths of one percent as the City Treasurer’s Office was accordingly met with stiff opposition by the owners and administrators of the establishments when collecting the taxes.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is now bent on seriously running after the said establishments which he said are riding free on the taxes paid by other entities.
The schools and hospitals are earning so much, enjoy the bulk of the services of the City and are not paying business taxes compared with the lowly street vendor who pays his daily tax, he said.
Osmeña is waiting for the advice of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, whom he hoped would instruct the Commission on Audit to see the books of the said establishments.
“The issue isn’t whether or not we cut the services, but it’s whether or not they are abusing,” Osmeña said.
Around P255 million stands to be collected from the universities and hospitals for 2000 to 2004 alone. – Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP (THE FREEMAN)