Fil-Cebuano biz club seeks support from presidentiables

CEBU, Philippines - As the 2010 Philippine presidential elections draw nearer, the Filipino-Cebuano Business Club Inc. aims to seek the support of the presidentiables to give more attention and ample benefits to the micro, small and medium enterprises.

FCBCI Chairman Rey Calooy said that they will be participating as audience in a presidential forum that is slated in Cebu by end of the month, where they will be airing out three major concerns of their sector and keeping their fingers crossed to gain a positive feedback from the aspiring presidents.

 Calooy shared that they have a lot of issues to raise but they would want to stress out three which needs immediate answers since it affects all micro and medium enterprise players as well as the nano enterprise which he explained as those gaining smaller income like the sidewalk vendors and small stores.

He added that the first issue that they would be raising would their bid to have a calculated management fund where the government will make a government-designed bank and funding that is solely intended for the MSME players.

Calooy explained that presently, MSME players and those planning to start up a small business are discouraged from availing of loans from banks due to the stringent requirements and collaterals that bank loans entails.

He said that due to strict bank rules, MSME players are forced to resort to informal lenders despite the disadvantage because informal lenders collect immediately and becomes an added burden.  

Calooy said that the government should come up with a bank that will cater to the needs of the MSME businesses and that would not discriminate those who would want to make a loan regardless of how small the businesses are.

These banks should also be put up in different regions said Calooy to cater to MSME all over the country.

He also said that FCBCI would also be raising the concern in fixed taxation for MSME players. Calooy explained that they are aiming for this since business owners from this sector are not capable of hiring bookkeepers or accountants to take note of their daily income and are paying for any amount that are required from them.

Calooy said that this is also a source of corruption and they hope to eradicate this with the help of the fixed taxation. He also said that this would also help boost the economy since informal business players would not be afraid to be listed under the Bureau of Internal Revenue as they would know that they have a fixed payments that Calooy said would be categorized under different levels.

Aside from this, Calooy explained that they would also propose that business permits issued by the office of the mayor be nationalized in terms of requirements. —AJ de la Torre