CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The Provincial Government of Pampanga will ask the 505 village chiefs to assist in collecting the billions of peso ‘uncollected’ Real Property Taxes (RPTs) in the whole province.
Acting Governor Lilia ‘Nanay’ Pineda said they will ask the barangay officials to assist their respective municipal assessors and treasurers in the collection of RPTs since the barangays have a bigger share.
“Kayong mga barangay officials dapat trabahuin ninyo ang pagkokolekta ng Real Property Tax sa inyong mga barangay. Makakadagdag iyan ng income sa probinsiya at sa inyong barangay,” Nanay told the barangay officials during their meeting on General Revision of Real Properties held at Kingsborough International Convention Center in this city.
Engineer Romeo Dizon, provincial assessor said the RPT income is shared by the provincial, municipal/city and barangay local government units. In which, the 40% share is given to the barangay, 25% goes to the municipal/ city and the other 35% is the share of the province.
The acting governor said the provincial board is also moving to update the out-dated basis for collection and conduct a general revision of property assessments and classification in the province that would be reflected in the passage of an ordinance.
Atty. Charlie Chua, provincial administrator said that Vice Gov Nanay wants to immediately finish the tax ordinance and be signed on October, this year and eventually be implemented next year.
The provincial administrator said the tax code is currently out-dated. “We can collect even more RPT if the tax ordinance is updated and the revisions are implemented. More RPT collection would mean more basic services and more development programs for the people of Pampanga,” Chua said.
Chua said that it is high time to update the local tax code as it is already 23 years old and streamlines the Schedule of Market Values (SMVs) in various municipalities.
“Life blood ng gobyerno ‘yang taxes so that we can produce quality programs and projects that would benefit our people” Chua said.
Local government units are required by law to revise their SMVs and conduct general revision of property assessments and classifications once every three years. However, data from the Department of Finance show that Pampanga’s property taxes are still based on a 1994 SMV.
To make things work, Chua added that Governor Dennis Pineda is planning to complement the tax amnesty being initiated by the national government so they could encourage the Kapampangans to pay for their appropriate RPTs.
“This is to provide relief to delinquent tax payers and at the same time, raise additional revenue for government projects and services,” he said.