Cebu City financially stable - COA

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva assured that the city is standing on solid ground when it comes to financial stability.

As of February 5, the city has P2.6 billion in cash in four depository banks, which already includes the P872,291,935.15 collection or actual income from January 3 to February 5 this year. The rest are unpaid obligations of about P668 million and the forecasted deficit of P43 million among others.

In the fiscal year 2010, CTO declared P4,495,750,879.34 income which is P711879164.32 more or 20 percent more than their target income of P3.2 billion.

The actual expenditure in 2010 is P3,783,871,715.02 but its obligations totaled P4,452,536,701.91. The difference or the unpaid obligations of P668 million include unprocessed payments to contractors and other transactions in City Hall.

The money will be available for the purpose for which it is originally intended unless it will be realigned in accordance with the budget rules.

Of the P3.7 billion actual expenses, the bulk went to Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses which totaled P1.590 billion.

Budget for Personal Services cost the city P932,163,051 while the capital outlay was only P134,138,793.19. The budget for Personal Services is for the salaries and incentives of employees while the budget for capital outlay is usually charged for new projects and investments for long-term assets of the government.

Oliva said that they were able to exceed their target collection last year because of various strategies they implemented to increase their collection in real property taxes, business and other taxes, regulatory and permit fees, sale of government lots, economic enterprises, internal revenue allotment and share from eco zones.

In 2010, they targeted to collect P279 million of real property tax but they were able to collect P299 million. The estimated income from business tax is P678 million but they were able to collect P816 million.

CTO also expected to collect P390 million from the collection of regulatory fees and permits but they have collected P880 million.

From the sale of government lots like the South Road Properties and the North Reclamation Areas, among others, the city earned P1.371 billion, almost double their target income of P787 million. It was last year that the city government was able to seal the multi-billion deal with SM Prime Holdings.

The city’s markets and slaughterhouse earned P54,862,453.85 and P26,326,489.45 respectively which are almost 100 percent more of their target.

There was also P1.041 billion from the share of the Internal Revenue Allotment.

Ofelia said that for this year, their expected income is P4,258,778,724. As of February 5, they have collected P872,291,935.15, of which, P457 million and P151 million were generated from the collection of business and real property taxes respectively. (FREEMAN)