BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio City Market Authority (BCMA) approved the reduction of the fees being collected by the local government from the hundreds of roving vendors in the city in order to allow them to have a bigger take home income for their respective families.
The agreement to reduce the fees collected from the roving vendors was agreed upon by the BCMA members during its meeting Tuesday upon the request of Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Market, Trade and Commerce.
From the total P1,052 per quarter being collected as regulatory fees for the roving vendors, the BCMA approved the reduction of the special permit fees for the roving vendors to only P350 per quarter in order to provide a relief for the vendors relying on vending around the city as their primary source of income.
However, the BCMA pointed out that the roving vendors must talk among themselves the delineation of the areas where they will be allowed to vend in order to avoid overlapping so that most of them will be accommodated to vend their respective products in the areas where they will be allowed to sell their goods.
The BCMA considered the argument of Yangot that while it is understood that the taxes being paid by the roving vendors actually add to the revenue collections of the city for its administrative operations, the city must also have to look into the economic status.
“For a roving vendor who struggles every day in the streets just to make ends meet, the amount of P1,052 paid quarterly is evidently burdensome for them,” Yangot stated in his letter to the BCMA chaired by Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan.
According to him, the local government allowed the vendors to sell so that they can provide food for their families and as an added income to support the need of their respective families, thus, the special permit fee of P350 should be collected from them and that the P702 business permit fee should be removed in order to allow them o have bigger income for their families.
Earlier, the roving vendors appealed to the local government to reduce the regulatory fees being collected from them because their daily income that they derive from the sale of their goods is sometimes not enough to sustain the daily requirements of their respective families.
The BCMA is the governing body over the affairs of the city public market and satellite markets in the different barangays of the city.
The BCMA appealed to the roving vendors to already start getting their acts together for them to be able to identify the areas where they will sell their goods to avoid frequent complaints from them on issues of overlapping which might constrain the body to revoke the permits earlier granted to them to sell in the different barangays of the city./By Dexter A. See