CAGAYAN DE ORO -- The city government has agreed to grant business chamber members adversely affected by tropical storm Sendong (international name: Washi) relief from unpaid real property penalties and surcharges.
This follows earlier meetings of a delegation from the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc. (Oro Chamber) with the city finance committee to follow up a letter request dated Jan. 11 to Mayor Vicente Y. Emano, through Councilor Simeon V. Licayan as chairman of the city ways and means committee, that requested the tax relief.
Among the measures requested through chamber president Ma. Teresa R. Alegrio were:
• deferment of new assessment fees provided in the new Revenue Code of Cagayan de Oro pertaining to the renewal of business permits for a year;
• application of the old assessment rates for affected micro, small and medium enterprises;
• condonation of penalties on all unpaid real estate taxes since the global crisis of 2007 up to the present; and
• extension of the processing of business permit renewal for another month.
“We had a successful final meeting with the city finance committee and essentially, all our requests were granted except for the extension of the business renewal period to February,” said chamber executive director Lordilie C. S. Enjambre in a memorandum to the board of trustees.
“Hence, payment of outstanding real property taxes from 2007-2011 can now be done less interests and surcharges until April 30, 2012 while the old business permit assessment rates will be applied to directly affected MSMEs (micro and small and medium enterprises),” she added.
Partial results of a survey conducted recently by Oro Chamber revealed that 57 member MSMEs were directly affected by Sendong with damage to equipment and structures amounting to P129.5 million while equipment losses in the manufacturing sector totaled P224 million.
Member companies in the hotel and restaurant sector also reported a 60% drop in income due to canceled functions and bookings, personnel and client fatalities, and shortage of electricity and water.
“The business sector is doing its best to provide relief assistance to all affected families including its own employees and workers,” read the chamber’s letter to the mayor.
“The road to economic recovery, however, may take some time and for this reason the Oro Chamber is appealing for your consideration on the subject requests,” it added.
The city treasurer’s office has requested the chamber to submit its list of affected MSMES by Jan. 16 as basis for collection.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, in a situationer report on the impact of Sendong as of 8 a.m. on Jan. 15, tallied the dead at 1,257, unchanged from the previous data, with 181 still missing since the calamity struck on Dec. 17, and over 6,000 injured. Damage has reached P1.456 billion, about two-thirds of which was in infrastructure and the rest in agriculture. The storm affected 13 provinces in eight regions in the Visayas and Mindanao, or more than 1.14 million persons. -- Michael D. Baños
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