Davao City sees new businesses for 2009

An increase in new businesses in Davao City is expected this year to about 10 percent higher than the total businesses registered last year.

Business bureau chief Atty. Johpee Agustin said they were able to served about 32,000 businesses in 2008 both for new registrants and renewal of business permits and they expect new businesses coming in.

She said they are optimistic of the business trend in the city even as she said that they will continue to come up with new strategies so Davao City would generate more revenues.

She noted that on the first week of January this year they already received 14,739 applications for renewal and about 170 for new registration.

On a daily basis she said they receive some 2,000 to 5,000 applications and inorder to fast track the issuance of permits they came up with a scheme where the applicants after complying basic requirements are given temporary authority to operate (TAO). But this will not apply to those businesses that needs detailed requirements like detailed permits, etc.

She said once the TAO is issued the investor can proceed and they still have to comply the other steps as required by other regulatory bodies.

She said the strategy enticed other busnesses to come to the city and with proper education and awareness they also noticed that businesses are religiously complying with the requirements compared to their previous years operation.

Meanwhile Agustin said that with their successful implementation of collecting occupational permit fee (OPF) where it gave Davao City some P6 million in revenues last year, they will be implementing the Special Mayor's Permit Fee (SMPF) this year.

The OPF in 2007 only had a collection of P3 million while P1.9 million in 2006, she said.

For the SMPF she said they will start to collect fees on all activities that will be conducted in the city.

She said this scheme is also provided in the Local Government Code and they will be implementing such inorder to make use of whatever is allowed by law for the benefit of the people of Davao City.

Meanwhile Davao City Treasurer Rodrigo Riola said their target income this year is pegged at P548 million and 60 percent of this will be taken from business taxes.

He said based on their experienced 60 percent of this collection will be realized by the first quarter of the year and of the fees the real property tax contributes about 60 percent of the total revenue generated.

He said most of the real property owners pay their taxes on the first quarter of the year because of the 20 percent discount.

Riola also said that Manila-based companies or those from other areas that operate businesses in Davao City are already paying their taxes here.

He said consultation and dialogue with these businesses made them understand that they need to share their income to Davao City considering that they engage business here. (Digna D. Banzon)