BAGUIO CITY – The city government will be crafting additional revenue generating measures to maximize the potentials of its existing assets in generating revenues for the city to improve its financial standing.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said that from a mere holding company, the city government must now maximize the utilization of its available assets to generate additional revenues for the implementation of high-impact development projects and improve the delivery of basic services aside from allowing the city to grant the required increase in the salaries of government officials and employees as provided in previous issuances of the national government.
He added that in the latest meeting with the members of the city finance committee, an inventory of the city’s available idle assets had been agreed upon for the preparation of the needed plans on converting them into income-generating enterprises to help improve the finances of the city government.
The city chief executive urged the concerned revenue generating offices of the city government to submit their proposed revenue generation measures to the City Council for possible approval and future implementation to achieve the city’s goal of sustaining a decent growth in its annual income which had been stagnant for quite some time.
Initially, the City Assessor’s Office submitted the proposed revision of the prevailing schedule of market values on real properties with appropriate adjustments to the outdated schedule of market values which had not been amended for over two decades now.
The executive department also submitted to the city’s legislative body a proposal for the conversion of some portions of major roads within the central business district into pay parking areas to generate added income aside from providing additional parking spaces for motorists and lessen traffic congestion around the city.
For this year, the city government projected an additional income of P300 million from available sources for the implementation of its programmed big-ticket projects and improve the delivery of basic services to the people in the city’s 128 barangays.
Unfortunately, the city government has not amended its current schedule of market values and prevailing business taxes for over two decades now compelling the finance department to include the city in the list of local governments with outdated revenue measures, thus, the need for the said local governments in the said list to work out the required amendments to their outdated revenue measures.
Under the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code of the Philippines, local governments are mandated to revise their revenue measures at least every five years to ensure that the same will conform with the prevailing conditions in the country and to ensure that local governments will benefit from whatever improvements in the economic condition of the said localities in the different parts of the country.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by: Armando Bolislis
