Leyte provincial board mulls revision of decades-old tax code

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 24 (PNA)-- After more than two decades, the Leyte provincial board is eyeing to revise its 1989 Tax Code and implement a new one that suits the needs of the time.

Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto said that this was among the priority agenda that came out during their recent Executive and Legislative Agenda meeting in Cebu together with the different department heads of the province.

Loreto said that plan to revise the tax code prior to super typhoon Yolanda was already in the works, but the governor decided to forego the revision considering the devastations experienced then by all sectors of the society.

“We saw it inappropriate to impose higher taxes then when people were just beginning to recover from the devastation of the typhoon,” Loreto said.

The vice governor admitted the present tax code of the province is “much outdated” and it’s past the time it should be revised as the monetary value then is more than its value 27 years after.

“A revised tax code can improve revenue generation and thereby increase collection,” Loreto said.

Meanwhile, Loreto said that the creation of a technical working group will be done soon.

Only tax provisions on the province’s real property tax have had revisions over the past several years, it was learned.

This enabled the provincial government to levy taxes on real properties competitively in the past years. As mandated under Section 200 of Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991, LGUs has to undertake a general revision of real property assessment every three years.

“It is our task to see that our taxes are suited and competitive to the needs of the time,” Loreto said.

In 2015 the provincial treasurer’s office collected more than Php24 million in real property tax (RPT) basic share alone. As of March 2016, the treasurer’s office collected from the power plants in Kananga, Leyte more than Php63 million in real property tax from Energy Development Corporation (EDC) and the Green Core Geothermal Inc., (GCGI).

In the provincial treasurer’s report for 2015, aside from RPT collection, it revealed that the province also collected Php34.3 million from special education funds; Php6.4 million in business tax; 

Php509,883.00 in fees and charges; and more than Php366 million from economic enterprise.

The province collected a total of Php431.89 million in taxes in 2015. While in 2014, Leyte province ranked 11 in the top 20 LGUs generating locally sourced revenues. (PNA)
PGL/SQM/AHLETTE C. REYES/EGR