MAYOR Michael Rama believes Cebu City has a chance to achieve the proposed P100 billion budget for 2024 as soon as the Real Property Tax (RPT) Code is revised.
He is also optimistic that the City can still achieve this year’s P50 billion budget by Dec. 31, 2023.
“First of all, let’s not call it over, until it is over. Second, we do have that P50 billion pick up just anywhere in the air,” Rama said on his online program “Ingna’ng Mayor” on Tuesday, Nov.14.
Rama said that not only did the Local Finance Committee study and calculate this year’s budget, but the City Council and the Department of Budget and Management also approved it in terms of achievability.
He said the City even launched the Strategic Assessment for Your Assets and Worth (Sayaw) para sa Buhis in July to complement its collection.
During their initial discussion, the mayor said the amount originally proposed for next year’s annual budget was P300 billion, but they settled on P98 billion.
Rama said City Hall should be given the chance to revise the proposed ordinance to raise the RPT Code, which has remained the same for about 23 years.
He said this will be a major source of income for the City that will be used to fund necessary and pending projects and programs like the construction of medium- rise buildings (MRBs), a socialized housing program for informal settler families and households that will be affected by the clearing operation along the city’s major waterways.
He said they just want the actual fair market value of real estate and properties in the city updated, as it had not been updated for several years.
He pointed out that the business community does not object to the proposed increase. Their only concern is to be allowed to pay their RPT on a staggered basis, he said.
In an interview on “The Intruder,” VoxPop Cebu’s online commentary program, on Tuesday, City Councilor Nestor Archival, the minority floor leader, questioned the feasibility of the proposed P100 billion budget for 2024.
Even if the RPT Code were to be revised, the City could only collect around P60 billion plus another P15 billion from business tax revenues, which still cannot cover the entire amount, he said.
Archival said the City has only been able to collect P7 billion of this year’s P50 billion budget. Given the time left, the City will be struggling to collect more than P10 billion, he said.
The councilor has no question as to the intent of raising the RPT, but an abrupt increase in RPT will be detrimental to small-time businesses and property owners who have yet to recover from the pandemic and super typhoon Odette.
Archival said the council is still deliberating the proposed RPT revision ordinance, but he assured that the increase in RPT will be reasonable for everyone.
Based on the Commission on Audit 2022 Annual Financial Report on local government units (LGUs), the 2023 annual budget of Cebu City, with assets amounting to P30.5 billion, dwarfed that of the three richest cities in the country.
Quezon City, with assets amounting to P443 billion, allocated P33.5 billion for its expenditures, while Makati City, with assets amounting to P239 billion, only passed a P16.9 billion budget. Manila, with assets amounting to P77 billion, approved a P22.2 billion budget for this year.