Tax reprieve eyed in Zambo

WITH THE Covid-19 affecting almost all sectors, Zamboanga Mayor Beng Climaco is mulling to grant a three-year tax holiday on idle lands and another two years tax reprieve for the auxiliary services groups or companies.

Climaco said she will seek the support of the City Council to grant the tax reprieve. 

“Let our people recover first from the Covid-19 pandemic before we collect the right taxes from them. I hope the SP will also support this,” she said, referring to the Sanguniang Panlungsod. 

Even last year, Climaco said the Zamboanga City Planning and Development Office was working closely with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Covid-19 Recovery and Rehabilitation Plan in an effort to stimulate the local economy which was severely affected by the pandemic.

Climaco, who heads the local task force Covid-19, said the economic stimulus package among others tax incentives, discounts and reprieve and all these were also presented in various webinars and online conferences.

“The (Recovery and Rehabilitation) plan is based on various online consultations and includes stimulus programs to help the local economy, especially the small business, recover and adapt to the new normal,” she said. 

She added that the proposal includes discounts on amusement, business and real property taxes, waiver on penalties, fines and late payment fees, waiver on tricycle operator’s fee.

Climaco, however, said these instruments require legislative actions which will entail time due to the required conduct of public hearings by the City Council. 

So to start the process, she said the City Legal Office was ordered to draft ordinances on the economic packages and endorse them to the City Council. 

But while the proposed measures will likely hinder the ability of the city government to meet its revenue targets, Climaco said that National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon, in a virtual conference, said the national government would step in to “pump prime” the economy for employment opportunities, livelihood generation and adaptation of small business to the new normal.

Pump priming is the action taken to stimulate an economy, usually during a recessionary period, through government spending and interest rate and tax reductions.

The measures are desired to be a balance of showing support to the local businesses and making sure that the local government still has enough war chest to fund its programs and projects.

Climaco also echoed what Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said and she urged the cooperation of the various sectors. Chua said navigating the coronavirus pandemic and thriving in the new normal requires a whole-of-society approach, which is vital in the country’s recovery plan. 

“The government needs the utmost cooperation of the public, the business sector, and civil society in restarting socioeconomic activities while preventing the spread of the virus, and mitigating the ill-effects of this pandemic,” he said. (Zamboanga Post)