Davao Sur town eyes income hike for more social, dev’t services

MAGSAYSAY, Davao del Sur –– The mayor here is confident the town can collect more revenues to support its social protection and community development goals in the next three years.

Mayor Arthur Davin has cited the local government’s 2018 feat of being top among all Davao del Sur localities in terms of tax collection efficiency.

He hopes that when matched with the necessary revisions in the local tax code, the revenues of the local government would further improve.

Davin describes the local tax code as “very outmoded.”

But he asked local legislators to impose “affordable and reasonable taxes to the people.”

Predominantly agricultural, Magsaysay is a third class municipality with a population of about 55,000. Its 2016 revenues of some P132 million largely comes from internal revenue allotment from the national government.

In 2013, local revenues stood at P5.44 million. By 2018, this has grown to P13.9 million, an increase of 157 percent in five years, or an average annual income growth of 31 percent.

According to Davin, the local treasury has collected P10.12 million for the first half of 2019.

Davin explained that more revenues would mean more initiatives geared at social protection.

Magsaysay’s social development funds provide health insurance to poor families, scholarship, hospitalization, and assistance for burial and other similar expenses.

Since 2014, some P15.9 million went to more than 7,000 beneficiaries. Another P10.8 million were spent for the secondary, tertiary and technical education of around 7,859 students. /lzb