Cebu City – Listed mall developer SM Prime Holdings, Inc. will advance around P50 million in taxes to the Cebu City government to jump-start the rehabilitation of the Cebu North Reclamation Area. With this gesture, SM Prime hopes to encourage the  other 125 property owners at the 169-hectare reclamation area to also advance tax payments to the city government in order to finance the rehabilitation and beautification project worth P202.26 million.

SM Prime’s advanced tax payment for 2007 will be used for the concreting and beautification of four major roads near SM City Cebu mall in preparation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in December. The A. Soriano St., J. Luna St., F. Urot and Kaoshiung Road are most likely to be used by the delegates and are, thus, in immediate need of repair and improvement.

‘This is not the first time that we have advanced taxes. We did it before in Cagayan de Oro City. But this is the biggest amount that SM has advanced. We hope this will be the start of partnerships between government and the private sector in efforts to fast-track certain projects,’ said Marissa N. Fernan, senior vice-president for marketing in Visayas and Mindanao.

The payment will be made as soon as a memorandum of agreement is signed between the city government and SM Prime, which should be before the end of this month. The city council last week passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign the agreement.

Ms. Fernan said the city government is expected to bid out the road concreting projects in August. The beautification project will be carried out by the Cebu City Parks and Playground Commission. These projects are targeted for completion in November, or before the summit in December.

She said they were merely holding Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmena to his word that if they pay their taxes in advance, they could tell the city government what to do with the money. SM Prime pays an average of P48 million in business, real property and amusement taxes to the city government.

‘We’re going back and holding him to his word. We want to make improvements in the area and we hope other lot owners will chip in,’ Ms. Fernan said.

SM City Cebu and an idle mid-rise hotel building occupy a 13.8-hectare property at the North Reclamation Area.