BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance charging an environmental fee for the use of roads and other public places for commercial and other purposes in the city.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Elaine D. Sembrano stated that the measure shall cover all commercial activities such as trade fairs, market encounters, motor or car shows, animal shows, beer fests, carnival operations, concerts, company promotional events, sales caravan, airsoft games and other similar events duly authorised to be conducted on roads, streets, alleys, parks or other public places, by the local government.
The ordinance added that it shall be the responsibility of the event organizer, operator or company to pay the prescribed environment fee prior to the conduct of their approved event.
The ordinance stipulated that the environmental fee shall be apart from the garbage fee collected pursuant to Section 97 of Ordinance No. 18, series of 2016 or the city’s Environment Code.
Under the proposed ordinance, trade fairs, market encounters, baratilyos shall be charged an environmental fee of 1 percent of the rent or lease of space but not less than P150 per day; animal shows shall be charged 2 percent of the entry fee per day but not less than P500 per day; car or motor shows shall be charged P500 per car per day; beer fests shall be charged 2 percent of the ticket sales; carnivals shall be charged P1,000 per ride or amusement facility per day; concerts shall be charged 2 percent of the ticket sales; political rallies shall be charged P10,000 per day; school events and religious gatherings shall be charged P2,000 per day plus P150 per booth per day; company promotional events or sales caravan shall be charged P10,000 per day plus P500 per booth per day and airsoft games and other sports events shall be charged P5,000 per day.
The ordinance asserted that all collections shall accrue to the city’s general fund and may form part of the fund for health and sanitation services and environmental protection purposes.
However, it stated that local government activities shall be exempted from the coverage of the provisions of the ordinance including events that are transitory in nature such as street parades, motorcades, fun runs, marathon or the like, provided, said activities are issued the required permits and clearances from the concerned city government offices and the closure of roads and other public places does not exceed 2 hours.
For the appropriate assessment of the fees to be charged, the event organizer, operator or company shall submit or attach to the application or request for the closure of roads and other public places for commercial purposes an event cost or financial plan to include specifically the list of activities, participants, the physical layout plan, the number of tickets intended to be sold to customers, equipment’s and vehicles to be used, among others, to the local legislative body and the City Treasury Office.
The required environmental fee shall be paid by the event organizer, operator or the company on or before the start of the event and a surcharge of 10 percent of the total environmental fee payable shall be charged should the event start without the payment of said fee.
By Dexter A. See
