Philippines – To ensure higher collection of real property taxes starting next year, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said she wants the 44 towns in the province to quickly finish updating their tax maps.
She gave the order to the Provincial Economic Enterprise Council (PEEC) during her meeting with Medellin town officials, who visited the Capitol Friday afternoon to ask help for a road asphalt project.
Medellin, a northern town 119 km from Cebu City, Philippines, used to be an ally of Garcia’s arch rivals, the Martinezes. But officials led by Mayor Ricky Ramirez shifted support to the Capitol last year.
The mayor said the town could contribute much to the province’s coffers with its share of real property taxes. He said the municipality in coordination with the provincial assessor’s office started updating the town’s tax map. Based on the survey of properties for three barangays alone, they expect an increase of P500,000. “If completed we are looking at an estimated increase of about P1.5 million,” Ramirez said.
Garcia, who was happy with the information, ordered Capitol treasurer Roy Salubre and Capitol consultant Rory Jon Sepulveda to speed up the updating of tax maps of the different towns.
“We should do that,” she said, citing Medellin’s example. Tax mapping verifies the location, dimensions and value of parcels of land subject to property taxes. Garcia, who is on her second term, faces the burden of reduced real property tax collections with the conversion of three Cebu towns into component cities last year – Carcar, Bogo and Naga. Naga was a consistent top source of real estate taxes to the province before it became a city.
The campaign to update tax maps would coincide with the Provincial Board’s move to apply a new schedule of Fair Marker Values for all land, buildings, machineries and other improvements in Cebu province.
“Coming up with a new tax map for each municipality will have to be done when we do the revision of properties,” Salubre told Cebu Daily News.
