By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Local businesses in Cadiz City and Toboso town in Negros Occidental got a Christmas gift of sorts from their local government units after they were given tax breaks this month.

Based on an executive order signed by Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for the local government to help local businesses recover.

Jaojoco’s order mandates the waiving of rental fees at the Toboso Public Market from December 17 to 31, 2020.

Jaojoco said that he saw the hardship of local businesses at the market trying to recover in the last six months of pandemic.

Toboso is a third class municipality who rely mostly on its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

Meanwhile, in Cadiz City, its Sangguniang Panlungsod passed Ordinance 08-2020 “granting tax reliefs for delinquent real property and business taxes, granting authority to the City Treasurer of Cadiz to enter into compromise agreement to taxpayers concerning their delinquent real property and business taxes.”

Under the ordinance, delinquencies in real properties and business taxes due as of February this year may be paid in installments “without interests, surcharges and penalties.”

However, 30 percent of the delinquency “shall be paid on the signing of the Compromise Agreement,” the ordinance said./DGB, WDJ