The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod is urging the management of Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CENECO) to explain the “local tax” equivalent ₱ 0.2018 per KwH imposed on member-owner-consumers starting January 2022 billings.
Bacolod Councilor Wilson Gamboa, Jr., who authored the resolution, said that this “local tax” is in the form of “percentage tax” computed based on the member-owner-consumers’ (MCOs) per KwH power consumption.
“Percentage tax” is imposed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and can be passed on to member-owner-consumers like the Value Added Tax (VAT) but not “local tax”, he said.
Gamboa said that the imposition of local tax has never been experienced by the member-owner-consumers in the past and may even go unnoticed now because it is printed in the lower portion of the billing.
The imposition, therefore, of the local tax in the CENECO January 2022 billing is a process and procedural violation citing in his resolution that this “local tax” item did not undergo any official consultation or notice coming from CENECO.
So, why is CENECO charging and collecting said local tax directly to and/or passed on to member-owner-consumers? What are the enabling laws that authorized CENECO to impose said local tax? “Are they allowed to impose local taxes according to law in the first place?” Gamboa asked.
He stressed that there is actually no law that empowers CENECO to charge and collect “local tax” since it is not in the Local Government Code or in the National Internal Revenue Code. CENECO owe it to the member-owner-consumers to explain, “What are these local taxes for and who gets to receive these local taxes, he added. (Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
