Calbayog steps up property taxes collection to support education program

CALBAYOG CITY, Samar, Jan. 19 (PNA) -- The city government here will intensify tax collection on real properties to generate more funds for local education program.

Department of Education (DepEd) Calbayog City division and the local government, with the support from the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) hosted Monday the Education Summit.

The gathering has focused on real property tax collection efficiency, stakeholders' role on tax collection and increasing the budget for education.

Assistant city treasurer Evelyn Obong said the local government and DepEd’s goal to increase the budget for education would also mean in increasing the collection of taxes.

Obong said that one percent of the assessed value of a real property automatically goes to the Special Education Fund (SEF) of a locality.

She also shared that ever since the City Treasurer's Office has not reached the target set by the Department of Finance on the collection of real property taxes.

“In 2015, we were given a target of PhP15 million, but our actual collection was only PhP5.25 million basic and SEF or 35 percent of the total target,” Obong said.

But, Obong clarified that despite said turn-out on the collection, they were able met the target on the SEF fund of around PhP7 million last year.

She said, however, that it would be different and would be much higher if only they have collected bigger amount of the total tax collection target.

Mayor Ronaldo Aquino, in his message, expressed optimism that starting this year, the city’s tax collection will increase.

Aquino said that in the future, new businesses will operate.

With the constructed structures at previous idle lands in the city, he said owners will eventually pay real property taxes.

The mayor pointed out that Section 235 of the Local Government Code states that provinces and cities nationwide as well as cities and municipalities within Metro Manila are mandated to impose levy for the Special Education Fund.

Stressing the importance of education to the country’s future, Aquino assured that the city will exert effort for an efficient collection on real property taxes to support programs on education.

“Public education is an investment for our future,” Aquino said, adding that, “we will answer the call for an efficient collection of real property taxes to better finance our public education program.”

“Payment of taxes is our civic obligation. The improved collection of our taxes for public education should be our commitment and not only the local government unit’s responsibility but also everyone’s responsibility,” he stressed.

When the mayor assumed office, he asked the support of the officials from the 157 villages to allocate funds from their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) as their counterpart to support the local education program, particularly on the salaries of the local school board (LSB) teachers.

But since LSB teachers was abolished by DepEd, SEF is now utilized for the improvement of schools and other expenditures.

This school year, the LGU released almost PhP1 million from the SEF as an augmentation, amounting to PhP5,000 each to at least 182 elementary and secondary public schools for the Brigada Eskwala. (PNA)
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