BAGUIO CITY – The City Treasury Office reported its ability to collect more revenues for the city government during the first eight and a half months this year compared to the projected tax collection target for the whole year.
City Treasurer Alex Cabarrubias said that of the more than P1.8 billion tax collection of the city government for the year, his office was able to collect more than P1.5 billion in taxes representing over 80 percent of the tax collection target.
On real property taxes, he announced the city treasury office collected over P77 million compared to the over P107 million collection target for the said specific tax.
Cabarrubias claimed that of the more than P377 million targeted collection for business taxes, the city government already collected more than P369 million during the said period.
Further, on non-tax collection such as fees and charges, the city treasury office collected over P283 million for the first eight and a half months of the year compared to the more than P311 million collection target for the year.
According to him, the national government remitted to the city over P636 million from its projected P829 million Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
He explained the national government is updated in the remittance of the IRA of the local government unit and that the same is automatically remitted to the account of the city.
On the share of the city government from the operations of the Loakan-based Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the city treasurer claimed the city collected some P150 million of the P210 million projected income of the city for this year from the lone economic zone in the city.
However, he reported that on the share of the city from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the city government only collected P2.4 million of the P8 million projected share of the city from the said gaming corporations.
On the other hand, he revealed the local government has a total of over P4.4 billion deposited in the different banks in the city with P3.8 million classified under the city’s general fund, more than P280 million is part of the development fund, while over P105 million is dedicated for the Special Education Fund (SEF) and other allocations.
Cabarrubias appealed to the city’s taxpayers to settle their obligations with the city government the soonest to avoid the imposition of penalties and surcharges that increase the amount they will pay for taxes.
He reiterated taxes are the lifeblood of the government, both national and local, and taxpayers must cooperate with the tax collection efforts of the city by religiously paying their taxes so that the same will be used to fund the implementation of priority development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services which is the government\s way of returning that the taxes the people paid.
By Dexter A. See
