BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The proposed Revised Revenue Code of Bacolod, updating the current tax code implemented in 1993, will be beneficial to the city, its people and future administrations.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia issued this statement in defending the city’s new tax code, saying that implementing this is part of good governance with the welfare of the people as its primary consideration.
“I only have one year and a half to go (as a mayor). If I want political convenience, I would have just sit down and waited for my term to end. But, in my conscience, as (a) local government official, (I am) looking at the welfare of the city in general,” Leonardia said in response to critics.
“When you talk about a tax code that is 19 years old, it shows a degree of some lapses on the part of governance,” Leonardia said, adding that the city’s population now is about 540,000. “Naturally, when the city grows, the needs and the demands would also grow and we need to catch up with that,” he said.
“Our (current) tax code is regressive. It means that the more the income our businessmen have, the lesser they pay taxes and this should not be the case. A healthy taxation principle should be progressive, which means that if the income is less, then taxes will also be less and if the income is high then the taxes will also be high,” Leonardia said.
“If the tax code were amended in 1998, 2003, and 2008, businesses should have been paying taxes about the same as that in the proposed Revised Revenue Code. But businesses, which should have been paying more before, were not paying it for so long and if you sum it up, they are still on the advantageous side,” he said.
The controversial new revenue code earned criticisms from some business groups, complaining that the proposed tax rate is too high.
City Treasurer Anabelle Badajos presented to them the comparative data of taxes in Bacolod, Bago, Talisay, San Carlos and Kabankalan and Iloilo cities, showing that “(Bacolod) new tax code is quite similar to them and appears more competitive. The taxes of Candoni are even higher than us.”
The mayor also contended that the new tax code can minimize the impact of financial downturn and it comes timely because this year, the addition of 16 new cities would reduce the city’s budget of about P45 million and another P35 million from its internal revenue allotment, and this means Bacolod will be losing P80 million this year.
Leonardia said the code has gone through legal process and studied by the City Legal Office. He said that local government units are required by law to amend its revenue code every five years, adding that the DILG earlier commented that taxation is part of Bacolod’s weak points because its taxes were not updated.
The city government however will listen to the businessmen’s concerns and complaints, but Leonardia advised them “not to allow themselves be used as propaganda materials or political tools by others.”
They have to do is to sit down with the incumbent officials because this is where the solution is, he said. “This is all about governance and we have agreed to hold a series of dialogs. Hopefully we can come up with a common ground. I would like that the consultation meeting would be an exploration and whatever comes out of this, let nature takes its course and follow it,” he said.
Leonardia said the businessmen have 30 days to file a protest against the Revised Revenue Code, and the Department of Justice has 60 days to resolve it. If there is no resolution, the people aggrieved may go to court, he said, adding that this is the process of exhausting administrative remedies.
They agreed that in case the city government and those from the different sectors can come up with an agreement against it, the city is willing to withdraw the new tax code, Leonardia said. “If there is a need to amend, we are open. We will just sit down, discuss and explore things and come up with one reasonable solution on this.”
Councilor Al Victor Espino said city officials had a dialog with the business groups who, in turn, said they were not really opposing the new tax ordinance, but are considering the new tax rates to be high.