MANILA, Philippines ? Quezon City?s business friendly and propeople system of taxation has hiked up the locality ?s cash on-hand to close to P7 billion for the first month of the year.

According to Quezon City treasurer Victor Endriga, the city ?s savings has reached P6,954,619,181.40 by the close of Jan. 31 ?s banking hours after it achieved a gross haul of P2.2 billion tax and fee collections in January, an increase of P79 million compared to last year ?s figures for the same period.

Endriga attributed the hike in revenue to the ?adoption of hassle-free tax collection and payment schemes ? introduced by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. in the city, where city hall opened its doors even on weekends and effectively eliminated instances of corruption where fixers and unscrupulous insiders are involved.

The city treasurer claimed he used a hands-on approach during the tax payment period and scrutinized tax documents to prevent tax cheating.

?An economic breakdown due to tax collection deficiency standards tear up our revenue structures and financial systems, ? Endriga explained, adding that guarding against tax cheats ensures the delivery by the city government of basic services to its constituents.

For the first month of 2008, the collection of business taxes ballooned at an all-time high of P1.366 billion against last year ?s figures of P1.198 billion.

The collection of community taxes was pegged at P51.164 million compared to last year ?s P45.315 million while locally sourced revenues, including regulatory fees, miscellaneous fees, amusement taxes and transfer taxes totaled P1.829 billion in contrast to last year ?s P1.728 billion.