Councilors want quarry tax increased

CEBU, Philippines - Extraction of sand and gravel for construction companies is considered a lucrative business and now the Cebu City government is proposing the increase of taxes for every cubic meter of sand and other earth resources quarried.

Cebu City north district councilors Nestor Archival and Augustus Pe Jr. proposed that the city will increase the taxes of sand, gravel and other quarry resources extracted from public lands or from the beds of seas, lakes, rivers or creeks and other public waters in the city.

The existing provision of the Cebu City Mining Ordinance provides for a 10-percent tax on the fair market value per cubic meter of ordinary stones, sand, gravel, earth and other quarry materials extracted from public places.

But the members of the Cebu City Mining Board, in its aim to regulate extraction and utilization of metallic and non-metallic minerals, sand and gravel including other quarry materials, proposed to impose a fixed rate per cubic meter.

The two city legislators proposed that the tax for every cubic meter of ordinary sand be set at P47, then P28.50 for the so-called Banda-Banda, P25 for rocks, P20 for limestone or anapog, P35 for diorite and P2,000 for verification fee.

City secretary Jose Marie Poblete encouraged anybody who will be affected by the proposed ordinance to attend the scheduled public hearing of the issue in today’s regular session of the city council at 1:30 p.m.

The officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the concerned environ-mentalists have been formally invited to speak for or against the proposed ordinance. – Rene U. Borromeo/BRP   (THE FREEMAN)