Amid a serious lack of government funding, the Department of Commerce is planning to increase fees on alcohol, beverages, tobacco, and corporation filings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are coming up with revenue generating measures. We want to increase fees. We\u2019re looking at increasing Alcohol, Beverage and Tobacco fees as well as corporation filing fees,\u201d said acting Commerce Secretary James A. Santos in an interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said that, based on initial discussions, the proposed fee increase would be \u201cmore than 20 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, he said ABT fees amount to $55 a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably more than a 20-percent increase. We are coming up with different scenarios,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the issue was raised during Tuesday\u2019s Cabinet meeting at the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
His office has yet to come up with a final proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get the blessing of the governor. We want to be in sync with the governor\u2019s economic recovery plan,\u201d said Santos.<\/p>\n
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial had expressed opposition to any form of tax or fee increases while he was a member of the Legislature.<\/p>\n
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has always objected to such increases, saying that the government needed only to be creative in its collection efforts to get the needed funding.<\/p>\n
Former SCC president Alex Sablan said the government has millions of dollars in uncollected revenues. <\/p>\n
He had cited the existence of an “underground economy,” with some $30 million to $50 million in potential revenues.<\/p>\n
He had suggested that resources be allocated where needed for an audit team under the Finance Department that would beef up tax enforcement and collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amid a serious lack of government funding, the Department of Commerce is planning to increase fees on alcohol, beverages, tobacco, and corporation filings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}