TACLOBAN CITY – The city mayor and even the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod do not want to have any form of increase on payments to the city government but the law is already mandating them to do so, said by Councilor Cristina Romualdez in an interview.
Romualdez, who chairs the finance committee at the council, said that in the proposed Revenue Revision 9, no tax increase will be made but rather on the evaluation of the current market price of city lands.
“We are already mandated by law (to do this),” said Councilor Romualdez.
“We have been receiving words and letters from the Department of Finance asking us to increase taxes or have a slight increase on taxes,” Romualdez added. “If we do not do this, we may face repercussion,” she stressed.
However, even if the city government is aiming to increase its tax collection, proper procedure are to done such as the conduct of public hearing which they did in the Sagkahan District and another public hearing to be conducted next week, according to Romualdez.
Romualdez added that they are still in the stage of negotiation with other sectors as to how much increase is to be implemented for the city in the revenue revision 9.
“We wanted it to be in the minimum so that taxpayers will not be burdened, and we will be implementing programs on tax paying such as installment payment and discounts on early taxpayers,” Romualdez explained.
Moreover, a barangay official of Barangay 62-B commented that taxes that are to be collected by the city should go down to funding projects that are beneficial to the city populace such as addressing problem of garbage, flooding and providing additional street lights.
The official also asked the city councilor on what had happened to the promise of the city mayor that there will be no tax increase within five years once the city of Tacloban status is upgraded into a highly-urbanized city.
Romualdez sidestepped the question by saying that all the the taex paid by the people of the city goes directly to various programs and projects that will benefit the public.
Councilor Jerry “Sambo” Yaokasin, meantime, said that considering the population and the big area of the city, two public hearing on revenue revision is not enough.
“There should be a massive information campaign especially to real property owners if what will happen to them once the revision 9 is approved,” said Yaokasin.
“There should be a series of public hearings until such time that everybody agree on the exact percentage or amount that is to be increased,” Yaokasin added.
Yaokasin said that once the two public hearing of the committee on finance is done, the members of the minority bloc plan to invite City Assessor Engineer Carlos Cordero to their session.
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