Another public hearing sought on Lapu-Lapu's proposed tax

Some Lapu-Lapu City councilors back another public hearing in connection with the proposal to impose on workers a professional tax of P300 and an occupational or calling fee of P100 annually.

Councilor Damian Gomez said that when the public hearing was conducted a few weeks ago, only a few showed up and most of them were government employees, not workers from the private sector, which the proposal was intended for.

Councilor Mario Amores also said that proper notice must be sent to proper parties in order to get their true sentiments.

Recently, the Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufacturers and the Mactan Export Processing Zone-Human Resource Association submitted their joint resolution to the city council requesting that the daily wage earners be excluded from paying the occupation fee and that the company be relieved from the responsibility of collecting such fees.

MEPZCEM president Robert Oliver and MEPZ-HRA president Renato Bontol both appealed to the members of the city council to reconsider the imposition of occupational fee to daily wage earners who are mostly factory workers, handlers, technicians, packers, and janitors.

MEPZCEM is an association of locators in Mactan Economic Zones 1 and 2 and the Cebu Light Industrial Park in Lapu-Lapu City and special economic zones of Danao and Naga cities and the municipality of Balamban, Cebu and the IT Park at the Cebu Business Park in Cebu City.

MEPZ-HRA is the association of the HR practitioners in the areas mentioned aboved.

Locators employ at least 20,000 professionals and 60,000 daily wage earners. These employees pay their community tax to collection agents at the work sites.

The joint resolution further reads that most of the factory workers and daily wage earners comprising 75 percent of the workforce are paid the minimum wage.

However, MEPZCEM and MEPZ-HRA stated that they are not opposed to imposing the professional tax to employees who are occupying the positions which require a PRC license as a minimum requirement or the occupation fee to those employees who are not categorized as daily wage earners.

Under the proposed ordinance, it also mandates that locators do the collection and remit the collections themselves to the Office of the City Treasurer of Lapu-Lapu City.

MEPZCEM and MEPZ-HRA however stressed that the task of acting as collection agents adds complexity to the companies' accounting and payroll processing.

Both of them have suggested that instead of the company doing the collection, the city treasurer should do the collection of such fees at the time it collects community tax at the workplace which is done every first quarter of each year. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan