DAVAO CITY—The city government was asked by a watershed council here to determine the precise sizes of plantations operating in watershed areas following the refusal of plantation owners to pay the environmental tax due to questions concerning the appraisal of their farms.
With only one foreign company paying the tax, the city stood to lose almost P14 million.
The money was supposed to fund watershed conservation and rehabilitation projects, said Chinkie Pelino, the non-governmental organization representative to the Watershed Management Council. The council is the policy-making body implementing the Watershed Code.
Pelino said the refusal of 26 pineapple and banana plantations was revealed during the regular monthly council meeting last month, when the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) reported the situation.
The CTO said only the Davao Agricultural Ventures Corp. (Davco) paid the environmental tax for 2015. Davco is a joint-venture company of the Del Monte Fresh Produce and Antonio N. Floirendo Corp.
The Davco payment “did not come voluntarily,” Pelino said, sadding that the company paid its tax “under protest.”
“This means that fund utilization will be put on hold until the protest is resolved in court or CTO will have to recompute the amount paid by Davco based on the actual size of the areas planted. Still, we commend Davco for taking on the responsibility to help protect the watersheds by paying for the fair use of our natural resources. We hope that other plantations will follow suit,” she added.
Pelino is an officer of the Interface Development Interventions (Idis), which posted its commentary in the March 25 issue of its e-newsletter, Bantay Watershed. The Idis is a member of the council.
The Idis said Section 42 of the implementing rules and regulations of the Watershed Code mandates the annual collection of an environmental tax from plantations operating on the slopes of the watershed.
“A rate of 25 centavos per square meter will be collected from agricultural businesses having not less than 50 hectares. This will be paid upon the renewal of the business permit at city hall,” the group said.
At this rate, the city government is expected to earn P14 million in environmental taxes.
“Because plantations were slow in playing their dues, only 36 percent of the target tax income was achieved,” Pelino said.
Idis Executive Director Ann Fuertes said the tax “can fund more environmental-restoration projects given the adverse impact of pesticide-intensive upland agriculture on water resources downstream.”
“It is just right and fair that the local government impose this tax to offset the negative impact that plantations bring to the watersheds. It’s like giving back to nature and the affected communities a portion of what they took from the environment,” Fuertes said.
Pelino said the refusal of other agricultural companies to pay the tax “mostly stemmed from their disagreement with the CTO’s appraisal of their plantations’ hectarage.” She called for a thorough validation of the CTO’s tax map.
“The sooner we quickly resolve the issue on the plantations’ actual area coverage, the sooner we can move forward with the tax collection so that we will have funds to carry out various projects to rehabilitate and sustainably manage our watersheds,” she said.