Quezon offers projects as incentives to hike realty tax take

As part of its efforts to increase realty tax collection, the provincial government has offered millions of pesos worth of projects, vehicles, classrooms and school equipment to local government units that meet revenue targets and to property owners who pay correct taxes.

Governor David Suarez said the tax collection program, dubbed “Damayan at Serbisyong Publiko ng Bawat Pisong Buwis Mo,” aimed to collect about P1.8 billion in real property tax at the village, municipal and provincial levels. It started on Jan. 9 and will end on October 30.

“If this amount will be collected, the delivery of basic services on health, agriculture, education and countryside development will be implemented for the poorest families in the province,” he said on Friday.

Suarez lamented that the provincial government was able to collect only some P400 million in realty tax before he assumed office in 2010. Under his administration, the collection rose by 130 percent last year, he said.

He said the tax assessment systems between Capitol and its LGUs must be corrected. Towns and barangays must assess property values differently from the provincial government, he added.

Suarez clarified that the tax campaign was not an offshoot of the failed collection of P6.1 billion in revenue from the Pagbilao geothermal power plant. Executive Order No. 27, issued by President Benigno Aquino III last year, stopped the provincial government from collecting the unpaid realty taxes from the plant’s operator, Team Energy.

The governor urged school officials to join the campaign by encouraging parents of students and community members to pay real property tax as the participating public schools of a winning LGU could also get prizes.

Only towns and villages that would meet 60 percent of their annual tax collection goal may join the contest, Suarez said.

Prizes at the municipal level will be P3 million worth of projects as first prize; P2 million, second prize; and P1 million, third prize. The winning barangays will get as much as P150,000 in projects.

The participating schools can win a classroom worth P500,000 as first prize; P300,000 worth of desks and tables, second prize; and P200,000 worth of instructional materials, third prize.

The lucky taxpayers can win a brand new van and 10 tricycles that will be raffled off.