BAGUIO CITY – The tax payment process at City Hall has gone smoothly despite the volume of taxpayers who came to settle their accounts on the first working day of the year, City Treasurer Alex Cabarrubias said on Wednesday.
The city treasurer was on hand personally monitoring the flow of clients hopping from one section to another last Thursday to ensure that the procedures are followed and that no long queues are formed.
“As much as possible, I don’t like to see queuing but that cannot be avoided with the turn-out that we are having so we just make sure that the lines do not get too long,” he said.
To his assessment, the number of clients who trooped during the first week was the same as in the previous years but as they intended, there were no long lines this year.
He said this may be attributed to the full implementation of the electronic Business Process and Licensing System (e-BPLS) in the processing of both the new and old business permit applications and the Real Property Tax Assessment and Computation System (RPTACS) for realty taxes which streamlined the tax payment procedures.
The office however expects clients to continue flocking to the city until the deadline for tax payment set in March.
The permits and licensing division of the city mayor’s office under licensing officer Allan Abayao has processed more than 200 permits as of Thursday.
The City expects more than 22,000 regular business permits to be processed this year with a target collection of P263 million in business taxes and P98 million in realty revenues.
As in the past years, discounts are given to early realty taxpayers amounting to 20 percent tax cut to those paying in January, 15 percent in February and 10 percent in March.
Taxpayers will also get the chance to win prizes in the annual raffle bonanza to be drawn in April.
Cabarrubias reminded the public of the procedure in renewing business permits.
He said taxpayers should proceed to the one-stop shop section to claim printed 2017 assessment. Owners must issue an authority to their representatives while messengers or bookkeepers must submit a list of clients and authority or special power of attorney from the owners to the business tax filing division and claim the assessment the following day.
Those without printed 2017 assessment or if assessment has issues, applicants can proceed to the business tax assessors for resolution or printing. All unresolved issued will be referred to the city treasurer.
Once assessment is finished, the applicants may pay the taxes and fees to the tellers by showing first official receipts for residential garbage or if not, the garbage fee will be included in the assessment.
The next step will be the payment of fire code fees to the Bureau of Fire Protection tellers then process to the permits and licensing office to claim business permit and/or business plate upon submission of the following: barangay, health, fire clearances, market clearance if business is in the market and real property tax clearance if prompted by the system.
For new businesses, applicants must proceed to the licensing office and fill up the application form which will be forwarded simultaneously to the following offices for processing: city planning office, fire department, city environment office, city health office, city building and architecture office, campaign and investigation or the city treasury office.
Upon clearance of the said offices, the applicants must proceed to the one-stop shop for the assessment, payment of taxes and fees and finally go back to the licensing office to claim business permit.
Inquiries on the status of applications may be coursed through the licensing office. **Aileen P. Refuerzo
