City Treasurer Alex Cabarrubias presented an expectedly bleak picture of the city’s economic performance for the past five months amidst the onslaught of the Coronavirus 2019 pandemic where business activities grinded to a halt.
During an executive budget forum last week presided over by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, he revealed that the city incurred an actual total loss of income amounting to ₱ 126,496,132.44 for the period.
The largest of these revenue losses is ₱ 14,792,748.76 from the Philippine Export Processing Zone Authority (PEZA) located at Loakan. The rest came from penalties, market rental, night market, amusement tax, parks entrance fees, lot rentals, market entrance fees, other rentals and hotel occupancy.
Cabarrubias disclosed that the city’s estimated income for this year is P₱ 2,030,000,000 while actual collections as of August 18 totaled ₱ 1,324,043,511.66.
He said that estimated collectibles for September to December this year is ₱ 705,956,488.34 divided into local revenue of ₱ 393,526,485.74 and the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) from the national government totaling ₱ 312,430,002.60.
Cabarrubias warned that with the on-going pandemic and most local businesses remaining shuttered, only around 40 percent of the city’s estimated local revenue collections for the coming months is expected to be collected.
An even possible worse scenario, he opined, is that if the national government reneges on its IRA obligations to the city.
Adding to the city’s income woes, is the continued closure of its borders to tourists as a measure in preventing the spread of the virus. As the country’s Summer Capital, the tourism sector contributes a significant amount annually to the city’s coffers.
In a move to revive the floundering local economy, city tourism office head Aloysius Mapalo earlier announced plans to gradually open city borders to a limited number of tourists by September. They will, however, be strictly vetted and must undergo stringent health protocols.
Cabarrubias suggested that with the dire outlook of the local economy, the city must collectively “tighten its belt” and spend only on project that are of the utmost priority and most needed.
He even added, half-seriously, that instead of hiring job orders, those who are currently on work-from-home status can be assigned to some of these programs like the planned paid parking project under the city engineering office that needs more than 40 traffic aides.
(Public Information Office – Baguio)