THE city government of Parañaque has collected more than P1.34 billion in business taxes and fees in 2014, 40 percent higher than 2013.
Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez said the amount is also the highest in the last eight years in terms of value and annual-percentage increase.
Olivares said this is a result of good governance and fiscal responsibility that started when he took office in 2013.
Records from the city’s Business Permits and Licensing Office (BPLO) showed the 2014 collection of P1.342 billion is higher by more than P301 million than the previous year’s take of P1.041 billion, or an increase of almost 40 percent. This is the second year in a row that the city broke the P41-billion mark in business-tax collection.
“This is a clear affirmation of the soundness of our policy that we don’t need new taxes in Parañaque; we should only enhance tax-collection efficiency to sustain and improve our financial position that allows us to deliver basic social and infrastructure services to the people of Parañaque,” Olivarez said.
“We are confident that, given the new policies that we have implemented, such as streamlining the procedures in the payment of fees and taxes and the reduction in the number of steps needed to secure business permits, we shall be able to sustain the trend of increasing tax collections in the coming years and maintain our ranking as the Most Competitive City in the country in terms of economic dynamism,” he said.
Melanie Malaya, the BPLO chief, said the 29-percent increase in collection is also the highest since 2006, when the city started computerization of financial data. In 2013 business-tax collection increased by 11.33 percent to P1.041 billion, from only P935.58 million in 2012.
Malaya attributed the robust hike in collection to the “Invest in Parañaque” campaign of the Olivarez administration which led to the big increase in the number of businesses that registered or renewed their licenses in 2014 that totalled 19,477, an increase of 14 percent from the 17,086 firms issued business permits in 2013.
Under the campaign, the BPLO worked with local business groups, the various barangays, and the homeowner’s associations in encouraging all business owners to register their businesses with City Hall.
Of the number of firms registered in 2014, a big majority or 17,122 businesses were renewals, while upstarts totalled 2,325.
Malaya said the increasing number of businesses and investments in Parañaque also reflects growing investor confidence in the city, which was adjudged as the country’s Most Competitive City in terms of economic dynamism for 2014 by the National Competitiveness Council, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the United States Agency for International Development.
Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco