Taxpayers will no longer have to lineup in the banks and in city hall to pay their real or business taxes once the city government rolls out the online tax payment by July this year.
City Treasurer Alex Cabarrubias reported that the city’s online tax verification system is already in place and the integration of the various online payment providers is being undertaken to ensure that the same will be in place once the online tax payment system of the city government will be rolled out.
He claimed the city government significantly reduced the queues in the one-stop shop of the City Treasury Office (CTO) with the designation of the 128 barangay treasurers to collect certain fees to help in decongesting the City Hall premises, especially during the first quarter of the year which has been designated for the processing of permits.
The city treasurer stipulated that under the present set up, barangay treasurers are allowed to collect payments for community tax certificate, police clearance, professional tax receipt, working permit, garbage and sewerage fees aside from the fines imposed for violation of the anti-road obstruction order and anti-smoking.
Cabarrubias commended the barangay treasurers for their willingness to take on the additional duties and responsibilities despite the meager share the barangays will be receiving from such enormous task but efforts are being done by the city government to reciprocate such gesture of the treasurers.
He urged taxpayers to continue paying their real property and business taxes on time based on the scheme secured from the CTO to help the city government generate sufficient resources to sustain the operation of the various offices in providing quality services to the people.
According to him, real property taxpayers could still avail of the 10 percent discount offered by the city is they settle their taxes before the end of the month to avoid the imposition of the 2 percent monthly penalty that will be slapped for those who fail to settle their obligation with the city.
For business taxpayers, he revealed that the city started imposing the prescribed penalties and surcharges to those who did not pay during the period January to February where businesses starting with letters A to P are mandated to process their permits while businesses starting with the letters Q to Z are still allowed to process their permits until the end of the month without penalty.
On the other hand, Cabarrubias reported that there were some 800 businesses that retired their operations last year while for this year; there are some 485 businesses that formally submitted their retirement with the city government.
However, he stipulated that the data is still subject to validation on the ground to ensure the accuracy of the data for the benefit of future references as there were many businesses that had been heavily impacted by the prevailing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. By Dexter A. See
