March 29, 2024

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong lauded the city’s Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) for ensuring that the law on Ease of Doing Business is complied with in Baguio as evidenced by sustained business-friendly awards.

Baguio City was able to sustain its awards as finalists in the Most Business-Friendly LGUs Award in 2020 and 2021 among Highly Urbanized Cities of the Philippines. The award was conferred by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Baguio City also maintained its awards in the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index ranked 19th place for highly urbanized cities in 2020 and inched up to 17th place in 2021. The award was conferred by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Despite the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, BPLO Supervising Administrative Officer Allan Abayao reported economic dynamism is bouncing back in Baguio City based on the increase of registered business permits surpassing the 20,000 target set in the past years.

For 2021, there were 22,800 permits issued higher by 14 percent from the 20,000 target from the previous years with 23,469 inspections conducted which is higher by 6.6 percent from 22,000 target which was the accomplishment in the previous year.

For the first five months of 2022, there were already 18,814 permits issued which is 94.07 percent of the 20,000 target while there are 3,138 inspections conducted representing 13.94 percent of the 22,500 target.

Abayao said the increase in accomplishment is attributed to the hiring of more personnel under the BPLO.

The city government collected P301,779,394 from business permits in 2020 but went down to P207,307,450 in 2021 due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As of May, the city government was able to collect P201,015,150 from business taxes.

Abayao is hopeful the city government will surpass its 2020 and 2021 business tax collections in the coming months. – Jessa Mardy P. Samidan