TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Despite challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city government surpassed its real property and business tax collection targets in 2021.
The City Treasury Officer (CTO) collected P3,792,066.34 real property tax (general fund) and PhP 4,740,082.92 real property tax (special education fund), exceeding its targets of PhP 1,500,000 and PhP 1,500,000, respectively.
Meanwhile, PhP 24,008,058.91 in business taxes were collected in 2021, surpassing by 60.05% the target collection of PhP 15,000,000.
Also up are the collections of regulatory fees and service/user charges. The former amounted to PhP 8,604,111.00, higher by 72.08 percent than the target of PhP 5,000,000 while the latter amounted to PhP 4,219,624.50 representing a 68.78 percent increase from the target of PhP 2,500,000
On the other hand, collection from receipts from economic enterprises dipped to PhP 5,681,018.00 from the target of PhP 12,500,000, and collection from other miscellaneous receipts amounted to PhP 2,053,994 which is 41.31 percent short of the PhP 3,500,000 target.
The CTO also collected PhP 2,008,177.50 in other taxes comprising of occupational taxes and community taxes, lower by 19.67 percent than the target collection of PhP 2,500,000.
The CTO says it continues to push for measures to increase the city’s tax collections, most crucial of which is the updating of the city’s local revenue code.
Until now, the city is still implementing a municipal local revenue code which prevents the city from expanding its revenue sources.
“Agbalin kuma nga city revenue code tapnu ma-maximize tayo kuma dagiyay taxes [and] revenues nga para iti city kasi nu munisipyo ka, ada lang ti limitations ti shares mu iti revenue,” said Etheldale Velasco, Local Treasury Operations Officer.
The CTO says it hopes the new set of city councilors will push for the updating of the city’s revenue code. In the meantime, the CTO is urging all business owners to pay their taxes before the May 31 deadline to avoid incurring penalties and surcharges.