LEGAZPI CITY – Desperately seeking for a “breathing space” in the wake of supertyphoon Reming and other calamities that battered Albay province late last year, small and medium enterprises in this city and province are asking for the deferment of payment of their monthly premiums, taxes, and other fees for a period of 6 months to one year.

        In a series of resolutions passed, the Albay Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMED) Council asked the SSS, Philhealth, and Pag-IBIG Home Development Mutual Fund, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, all the local government units of Albay, and the local banks and other financing institutions to grant the small traders a moratorium of payments for their premiums, loans, taxes, license fees, and other financial obligations “to help them in starting the slow recovery from the huge losses they incurred” due to the typhoons that hit Albay and Bicol last year.

        Albay province was hardest hit by the supertyphoon with mudflows, strong winds and floodwaters sweeping homes and business establishments where thousands were rendered homeless, over five hundred persons killed and several hundreds more reported missing. Cost to damaged agricultural products and other sources of livelihood were of unimaginable proportions, official government reports claimed.

        Albay Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rosemarie Q. Rey, who is also the chairman of the Albay Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMED) Council, said the small businessmen were also requesting banks thru the Albay Bankers Association and the Confederation of Bicol Rural Bankers and other government financing institutions “to grant a six month to one year moratorium on loans granted to SMEs starting Dec. 2006 onwards and the condonation of penalties and other surcharges incurred due to the effects of the successive calamities that struck the province of Albay in 2006.”

        In another resolution, the SMED Council asked the BIR for the extension of deadline for the payment of income tax returns and other fees and surcharges for a period of six months “to allow the SMEs to recover” from the losses incurred during the onslaught of the typhoons.

        Specifically, the resolutions pointed out that “considering the magnitude of losses incurred by the SMEs, recovery is expected to be snail pace, thus, ultimately affecting the local economy and the possible lay-offs of thousands of workers dependent on the sector which accounts to more than 99% of the total local business establishments” in Albay.

        Local SMED Councils were created under the Magna Carta for Small and Medium Enterprises (R.A. 6977) to serve as primary agencies responsible for the promotion of growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the countryside by way of facilitating and closely coordinating national efforts to promote the growth of small businesses.

        The local businessmen are earnestly pleading for favorable consideration of their requests “for the benefit of the SMEs and the local economy in general.”