Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella | CDND File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has ordered the City Assessor’s Office and City Treasurer’s Office to create an “efficient” profiling of all taxable real properties located within the city’s jurisdiction.
He said that City Hall has to update its records to also update its real property tax (RPT) collectibles.
As of August 2019, City Hall has identified a pending real property tax collectible of P62 million from businesses and other commercial establishments operated here. This still does not include unpaid RPTs from other property owners.
These collectibles may still increase with proper assessment of all taxable properties in the city. Updating of City Hall records is expected to translate to more income for the city government without having to increase real property taxes for businesses, Labella said.
“I am very positive (that) if we can make an efficient and effective collection of our taxes after we have profiled and mapped them, I think we can increase a lot (of collectables) from our real property taxes,” the mayor said in an interview on Friday.
Labella especially wanted a review of buildings that were converted to residential condominiums and apartments. He said RPT assessment for these structures will change because of changes in its use.
Ideally, Labella said that RPT updating should have been done annually because of constant developments introduced on these structures.
In April, the Commission on Audit (COA) called the city’s attention on the “inefficiency” in its RPT collection. COA said that City Hall could have collected P848 million more had they updated their RPT collection list in the previous years.
Government auditors have identified at least 1, 379 property owners in Barangay Guadalupe with unpaid PRTs amounting to as much as P124 million as of May 2018. Another P79 million is yet to be collected from 679 property owners in Barangay Talamban.
COA’s Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) released on February 19, 2019 revealed that the city did not have RPT and Special Education Tax (SET) receivables set up for 2018. /dcb