BAGUIO CITY – The city government disclosed that it hopes to collect some P1.6 billion from internally-generated sources to cover a much bigger portion of the city’s annual budget for this year.
City Treasurer Alex Cabarrubias said the P1.6 billion projected collection from internally-generated sources this year is much higher than the P1.4 billion which the city collected from taxpayers last year.
He said revenue generating offices in the city are now doing their best to improve the city government’s collection from available sources as the city finance committee was directed to raise at least P300 million in additional income for this year for the implementation of priority development projects in the city in the coming years.
The city treasurer urged the taxpayers to cooperate by paying their taxes on time instead of being delinquent taxpayers that might result to the imposition of penalties and surcharges to their taxes and will cause the eventual auctioning of their properties.
According to him, taxpayers can pay the different type of taxes in each of the established payment counters unlike in the previous practice where there were only designated counters for specific taxes for those wanting to settle their tax obligations early.
He appealed to the taxpayers and those processing the renewal or application for new business permits to be patient as they will be attended by the concerned personnel of the city government assigned to attend to their needs.
Cabarrubias claimed the long queues clearly indicate there are more people are interested to pay their taxes or process the renewal or application of new business permits but they should be patient in awaiting their turn to be attended by the assigned personnel because of the huge volume of people that flock to the city hall to transact business with the various offices.
The city government department head stated the first three months of the year is the busiest part of the year for them as taxpayers flock to the city treasury office to pay their taxes and process the renewal or their application for new business permits, among other necessary transactions that are related to the maintenance of their structures, buildings and other business interests.
He explained the city government devised this scheme of designated payment counters for all taxes to minimize the overcrowding in the different offices where taxpayers transact businesses.
He said that the city government has already maximized its potentials in generating income from internally generated sources, thus, one of the suggested remedies is for the City Council to approve the required ordinances to increase the taxes for businesses and individuals as tax rates are declared to be outdated by no less than the finance department with the city being given notices in the past to revise its existing tax rates to conform with the prevailing trend of the times but which had not been acted upon by the City Council until now.
By Dexter A. See
