LGUs tax share from CEZA ‘too little’

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – The tax shares received by local government units (LGUs) affected by the creation of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) are too small, a local executive said yesterday.

“But we can’t do anything as this is the present sharing scheme,” said Santa Ana town Vice Mayor Pinky Rodriguez.

Santa Ana is the base for the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), which manages the CSEZ and its freeport.

Rodriguez said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has yet to release their tax share for 2012.

Before 2012, Rodriguez said, the municipality received some P4.5 million as its share for the previous fiscal year.

“I don’t remember the LGU receiving its share since I assumed office last year. But we don’t blame anybody, including DBM, which is responsible in releasing it,” she said.

CEZA, a government-owned and controlled corporation, covers 54,000 hectares as its exclusive economic zone, comprising the municipality of Santa Ana and other adjoining islands in Aparri town. 

CEZA is mandated to transform Cagayan and northeast Luzon to be one of the country’s economic, tourism, industrial, employment, logistic and entertainment hubs.

Earlier, Santa Ana Mayor Darwin Tobias urged the national government to increase the profit shares of host LGUs from the CEZA operation.

The existing tax sharing, he said, is too small to make an impact for the town’s economic development.

CEZA public affairs chief Joyce Jayme said the present tax sharing scheme is provided under Republic Act 7922, which states that one percent of the five percent final tax collected from various business activities within CEZA goes to the province of Cagayan.

One and a half percent will be shared between Santa Ana and Aparri in proportion to their income from businesses within the economic zone.

The remaining two-and-half percent “shall accrue to the national government and CEZA.”