Around 10,000 business owners have applied and renewed their business permits in La Trinidad, Benguet.
Mayor Romeo Salda said the municipality has exceeded its target of 6,000 business owners during the conduct of the business one-stop shop (BOSS) activity from Jan. 3 to February.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the operation of businesses has slowly normalized in the capital town.
With this, the licensing and treasury departments and legal office of the municipal government and the Bureau of Fire and the Philippine National Police are going around the municipality to check on business owners who did not renew or register.
“Business owners from the privately-operated vegetable trading posts who were mostly apprehended for not renewing their business permits or did not register their businesses,” Salda said.
He said there will be a penalty for the late registrants or renewal and they will face closure if they did not comply.
There will also be no subsidy for those who opened their businesses in 2021 and 2022 but did not register their businesses until now.
There are 10,700 estimated number of business establishments in the municipality.
The Benguet Revenue District Office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue said its revenue for the first quarter of the year has increased following the opening of businesses in the province.
Benguet Revenue District Officer Gil Vinluan, Jr. said their office collected almost P9 million, exceeding its goal by 8.31 percent from January to March, in its collection for the income tax, withholding tax, and other taxes.
He said there is an 80 percent compliance rate from the business owners and residents of the province in paying their dues to BIR.
The BIR conducts its regular tax mapping for the whole province through the revenue collection officers in each town.
Vinluan also urged business owners who are getting business permits to also get income tax returns from BIR to avoid getting penalized. – Ofelia C. Empian
