Capitol eyes P12 billion income

CEBU, Philippines —  The Province of Cebu is projecting a P12 billion income for this year, said lawyer Roy Salubre, Cebu provincial treasurer.

The projected income for 2020 is a little less than three times last year’s projected income of P4.06 billion.

The provincial government is pushing a P12 billion budget for this calendar year. The proposed budget is broken down into P1.76 billion for the general public services, P6.26 billion for social services, and P3.98 billion for economic services.

In order to achieve this income projection, Salubre said their strategy is to be more firm in the collection of taxes.

"All remedies available by law just to collect the taxes," he said, adding that a big chunk of the income comes from real property tax.

The earning from real property tax is also set to increase after the reappraisal of the market value of all provincial properties.

In a special session last December 26, the Provincial Board approved and adopted the Schedule of Market Values (SMV), a basis in the 2019 general revision of real property assessments and classification.

The reappraised value of provincial properties will be applicable by the second half of this year.

Aside from this, the province is expecting to earn P200 million from quarry operations.

Also, the province gets revenue from its 16 district and provincial hospitals and the Cebu South Bus Terminal.

Of the P12 billion, Salubre said the P4 billion will be downloaded from Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) for the Universal Health Care law.  KQD (FREEMAN)