BONTOC, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE– The local treasurers of the 10 municipalities of this province sought the reduction of Real Property Tax collection targets from P42M to an amount that is doable and attainable from the Department of Finance for 2016.
This came after the DOF thru the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), whose mandate is to provide technical supervision over the local government’s fiscal and financial management, set the collection target of all Local Government Units for 2016, and also due to the inclusion of revenue generation under fiscal management areas as major criteria in the selection of local governments in the Seal of Good Governance program of the Department of Interior and Local Government that might disqualify the province from receiving such award.
In the case of the province, the target is too high, according to the treasurers, considering that property tax records are a perennial problem attributed to many reasons.
Based on BLGF Memorandum Circular Number 2016-38, dated July 13, 2016, to all provincial/city/municipal treasurers of CAR, the only option for reduction of collection targets is separating properties that are beyond collection by the local assessors and duly certified by both local assessors and treasurers and classify it under PROPERTIES WITH RESTRICTION of the Quarterly Report of Real Property Assessment (QRRPA) of the assessor’s office. Deadline of submission for request of collection target reduction was on July 28, 2016 at the regional office.
The estimated target is based on the reports of all property assessed values of the assessors wherein 80% will be drawn from the current year and 35% from previous years.
According to the QRRPA reports the Provincial Assessor’s Office, ending 2015, the total taxable assessed values is P2,111,763, 798.00), and its corresponding taxes is P42,104,862.00. Based on the yearly current trend of collection, the province never collected at least fifty 50% of the total amount from taxable properties.
It is to be noted that the office of the local treasurers headed by Provincial Treasurer Cawed A. Gamonnac uncovered a soaring assessed value of problematic properties which according to most treasurers is beyond collection.
The uncollected RPT is attributed to the following reasons: (a) overlapping tax declarations; (b) washed-out/eroded properties; (c) unknown declarants and properties; (d) property owners are out of the country; (e) deceased declarants; (f) properties are donated to governments; (g) properties are under CARP; (h) properties are sold/donated to unknown persons; (i) properties are abandoned; etc.
It is for this reason that the late Governor Leonard G. Mayaen issued an Administrative Order No. 31, s. 2014 directing the municipal assessors of this province to revisit and clean their Real Property Tax (RPT) records to come up with realistic collectibles.
To date, ongoing field validations are being undertaken by both the offices of the local assessors and treasurers, and for the meantime, the assessors’ offices are currently conducting a general revision for this year. Some problematic properties have already been cancelled and others are shelved under “properties with restrictions” of their quarterly reports.
On July 22, a first joint conference of both the treasurers’ and assessors’ leagues was conducted to come up with interventions to address the old-aged problems that beset the province’s performance in terms of revenue collections.
The leagues agreed to have a joint validation of the records, and set aside problematic properties that seem justifiable so as not to be appearing as collectibles to come up with the said target date of submission.
Provincial Assessor Marjorie Kiat-ong expressed that they will give their full cooperation to the treasurers’ plight if only to maximize the collections.
The corresponding taxes from the assessed values of properties placed by the local assessors to property under restrictions in their assessment reports less the total collectibles shall be the collection targets of the local treasurers.
The treasurer’s league of the province headed by Municipal Treasurer Caroline Astudillo of Sabangan is optimistic that the central office of the finance department will soon grant their petition for reduction and that realistic and attainable collectibles will be soon realized, with the manifestation of support of the municipal assessors to clean their tax declaration records.
Meanwhile, Municipal Mayor Abraham Akilit during his conference with BLGF Regional Director Carmelane G. Tugas on July 18, 2016 at Bauko, Mountain Province presented his planned interventions to maximize RPT collections in his area of jurisdiction considering that Bauko is the highest in the province in terms of real property delinquents. One of the interventions he would like to implement is the condonation of delinquent properties thru a compromise agreement to be entered into between the municipal government and the taxpayers.
Director Tugas, who is due to retire this August 2016, advised the local officials to base their moves the Local Government Code, and warned that such condonation of delinquent properties has its own conditions as provided under RA 7160, Sec. 276, where it states that:
“In case of general failure of crops or substantial decrease in the price of agricultural or agribased products, or calamity in any province, city, municipality, the sanggunian concerned, by ordinance passd prior to the first day of January or any year and upon recommendation of the Local Disaster Coordinating Council, may condone or reduce, wholly or partially, the taxes and interest thereon for the succeeding year or years in the city or municipality affected by the calamity.”
The mayor, in an earlier attempt, had sought from the past sangguniang panlalawigan members for legal assistance but no to avail.** Alfred F. Macalling
