Lower real property tax collection target pushed

published April 25, 2012 in BusinessWorld


TACLOBAN CITY -- A lower real property tax collection target for this year has been proposed for Eastern Visayas due to difficulty in collecting taxes, an official said.

“Based on the total assessed valuation submitted by provincial assessors, the region is capable of generating P1 billion RPT (real property tax). However, we sought for consideration since that is not attainable,” George Roma, Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) regional director, toldBusinessWorld.

The request to lower the target to P907 million has been conveyed to the main office in Manila, he said.
Although lower than the P1-billion goal, the proposed revised target is still higher than the actual RPT collection of P788.6 million last year.

The P1-billion target is attainable, Mr. Roma said, if local governments will send out early the notices of assessment to property owners and taxpayers pay their taxes religiously.

He also reminded local officials to update the local revenue code every five years and revise the schedule of market values once every three years.

The BLGF has intensified the conduct of revenue and assessment audit to evaluate and update local tax ordinances. It has also been conducting capability building seminars in the last two years to improve collection performance at the local level.

“We are building the capability of local collectors on how to collect revenue from taxable properties and how to deal with unsettled accounts. The latest training was in Northern Samar and we will continue to do that in the whole region,” Mr. Roma said.

Real property tax collection in the region last year reached P788.6 million, higher than the P629.8-million revised target and 60% higher than the 2010 figures.

Mr. Roma cited in particular the good performance of Ormoc City, which collected P329.5 million; Tacloban City with P123.1 million; and Leyte province with P165.8 million.

The local government units posted collection performance rates of 242%, 152% and 110%, respectively. Other areas, however, registered lower collections and poor collection efficiency.

“Last year, Ormoc City was able to collect real property tax from California Energy. Tacloban City implemented the tax condonation program while Leyte province held a public auction,” said Mr. Roma.

“Taxes generated out of these activities contributed a lot to the overall performance,” he added. - Sarwell Q. Meniano