Council cuts budget by P86 million

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Council slashed about P86 million from the P1.3-billion supple-mental appropriations proposed by Mayor Michael Rama for the continuation of his pro-jects.

The slashed amount mostly came from the budget requests of the City Treasurer's Office for various collection strategy projects.

Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said that the slashed amounts are for projects that the council thinks do require full funding yet.

The requested P25 million of the CTO for the Business Tax Mapping and another P20 million by the City Assessor's Office for the Revalidation of Real Property Units were cut by about 25 to 30 percent.

"We put only 25 to 30 percent first. We feel the project is maayo, but let's start first with one section of the city. If successful, we can extend to the next. Naa man ta kwarta, we can put that next year," Young said.

"There's no need to put the whole budget kay dugay kaayo to sila mahuman. The money, it could have been used for something else," he added.

The tax mapping project planned by the CTO will take 18 months to two years, said City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva during the budget hearing last Tuesday. It aims to tax map all business establishments operating in the city and to inspect their compliance with the Omnibus Tax Code of the city government.

The revalidation of RPUs, which will be a joint project of the assessor's office and the CTO, needs P20 million for implementation but just like the tax mapping, it was reduced to 25 percent.

"We would want to be cautious about it. We want to see if it will work in pilot areas first. Just like the opening of branches they proposed. They're planning to open 24 branches. Daghan ra kaayo na, not practical. Upat ra gani pwede na," Young said.

However, if they build four and sees the need for more, Young said there will be no problem with the council because they are willing to approve more branches.

The finance building which will cost P65 million was also removed from the budget because there is no proposal yet, Young said. He said that even the CTO is not sure whether the project will push through because negotiation is still ongoing.

The P10-million budget for christmas lighting and decorations was also reduced to P6 million.

"We should be more prudent about it because nagpahibalo naman daan ang VECO nga magsige og brownout. There are may things that we would have wanted to take out but we approved anyway. We just told them that before they do the purchase, they will go back to the council to explain the whole thing," Young said.

The council took out some items but also proposed to add funds to other items which they thought would need more funding. (FREEMAN)