UC's Go says he's willing to pay biz taxes to the city

CEBU, Philippines - University of Cebu President Augusto W. Go yesterday visited Mayor Tomas Osmeña at City Hall to inform the mayor that he is ready to accept the proposed compromise agreement to pay business taxes for his school.

He also promised to convince the other school owners to do the same.

In an interview with The FREEMAN, Go assured that he will not pass on to the students the amount that will be paid as the school’s business tax if the city will only collect taxes equivalent to three-fourths of one per cent or 75 centavos for every P100 of gross income, rather than the original tax of P2.50 for every P100 income.

City administrator Francisco “Bimbo” Fernandez has been tasked by Osmeña to coordinate directly with Go to come up with an agreement that is acceptable to the city and the school owners.

Go said, he is amenable to the terms of the proposed compromise agreement where the city will waive the business taxes of the schools for the period from 2000 to 2006, and the school owners will just pay their taxes from 2007 up to present.

If the compromise agreement will be approved by the City Council and the court, where the civil case filed by the school and hospital owners is pending, the city can no longer collect the unpaid taxes of the schools and hospitals amounting to more than P300 million.

The owners of private schools and hospitals in Cebu hesitated to pay business taxes claiming that they are exempted from such kind of tax for the reason that what their schools and hospitals are not for profit, but Osmeña strongly opposed and insisted to collect taxes from them.

Osmeña told Go that if the school and hospital owners really want to have a settlement of the issue they should not let their lawyers handle it, because the lawyers would want that the case will remain in court for years for them to always collect attorneys fees.

While Go already assured that he will not pass on to the students whatever amount of business tax will be paid to the city, but he cannot speak for the other school owners even if they will also accept the compromise agreement.

Osmeña earlier said he is serious in his intention to run after the schools and hospitals which he said are taking a free ride on the taxes paid by other entities.

The mayor said the schools and hospitals are earning so much, but they just enjoy the services of the city. Osmeña earlier threatened to cut the services, but later he has decided to reconsider his plan.

Among the schools and hospitals that have claimed to be proprietary institutions are Cebu Doctors’ University, Velez College, Cebu Institute of Technology, Southwestern University, Sacred Heart Hospital, Cebu Doctors’ Hospital, Cebu North General Hospital and Velez General Hospital.

In 2006, the Cebu City government amended its tax ordinance, which reclassified the hospitals and schools as industries that are already subject to taxation based on gross sales.

But the officials of some schools and hospitals banded together and sued the city in court to stop it from enforcing the ordinance. — Rene U. Borromeo/NLQ