Business costs
Posted on February 25, 2006 - Filed Under General |
THERE’S something interesting in that seemingly minor news item about Dagupan City’s recently being awarded as one of the Most Competitive Cities in the Philippines for ‘small cities’ category.
The award was conferred on top performing urban centers by the AIM Policy Center in ceremonies at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati with Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez and several city aldermen receiving it on Mayor BSL’s behalf.
Our own research on that awarding rites showed that San Fernando City in Pampanga ranked first in the "small cities" category.Somewhere in the bottom lines of the news release by the City Information Office, it said Dagupan ranked 31st in terms of the “cost of doing business.”
Now that’s a rather unsettling compliment as there were actually only 37 “small cities” evaluated. That meant we were down in the cellar with five others. But of course in the overall rankings for that category, we still made it among the country’s best.
The question begs: Is doing business in Dagupan really rather “too costly?”
Juxtapose this with a news item this week, also from the CIO about the Quezon City treasurer’s discourse to Dagupan officials last week on the “trade secrets” for a robust financial health among cities, foremost of which is an improved (read: more) business tax collections by a local government unit.
Also, put the question alongside the stratospheric taxes and fees being implemented by Dagupan just this year for business permits (thanks but no thanks to the Revised Revenue Code of 2006) and you already probably have the answer—in the affirmative.
We scrutinized every word by the QC bursar in the news item and we seem to have missed reading in them any piece of advice about fiscal restraint on excessive ‘festival expenses’, ‘consultancy service fees’ and ‘donations’ to civic clubs and assorted mendicants among them. Quezon City probably is also doing the same with aplomb, so it can’t afford to shoot its mouth off on that. Or, maybe, shoot its foot is more like it.
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