Maguindanao off tax collection goal by half, says COA

Maguindanao missed its tax collection goal for 2011 by more than half, and it needs to intensify tax collection efforts this year to get more funds for its operations, according to the Commission on Audit (COA).

The COA said, however, that Maguindanao is on the right track in developing projects for reducing poverty, building infrastructure, and improving education and health services.

In its 2011 report for the province, the COA said Maguindanao managed to collect only 39.81 percent of its tax collection goal of P5.515 million, or just P2.195 million.

Maguidanao, the COA said, needs to improve its collection of real property taxes from municipalities. The provincial government had planned to collect P4 million in real property taxes in 2011, but only managed to collect a little more than P900,000, the COA said.

Maguindanao also failed to meet its collection goals for business and property taxes, and tax on sand and gravel, but it overshot its goals for franchise tax and tax on delivery trucks and vans.

Still, the COA said, Maguindanao’s overall tax collection was not enough.

The state audit agency said Maguindanao’s treasurer should step up collection efforts so that the provincial government could get additional funds for its operations.

The COA recommended that the provincial treasurer strictly monitor the municipalities’ collection of realty taxes and “compel them to remit the share of the province.”

But the COA also found something to praise in Maguindanao, one of the poorest provinces  and the site of the worst political violence in the country’s history, the massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan town on November 23, 2009.

The COA said the provincial government had taken “bolder steps” toward reducing poverty, developing infrastructure, and improving education and health services by carrying out various projects. The COA said it hoped the projects would improve the image of the province and the lives of its people.

One of the projects that the audit agency praised is a carabao dispersal program for the poorest of poor tenants. Under the program, 96 carabaos have been given to tenants, who also receive technical support until the carabaos produce female offspring, which will be given to other beneficiaries.

Also gaining COA approval is an oil palm and rubber seedlings distribution program, where seedlings are given to local governments to provide residents with a means to get out of poverty.

Maguindanao also introduced monthly medical assistance to inmates, as well as deployed a mobile hospital for the general public. The mobile hospital carries basic medical, dental, and surgical equipment, and an x-ray machine.

The provincial government has also launched an assistance program for poor students, and is pressing the development of infrastructure as an economic booster.

The COA recommended that Maguindanao continue the projects and expand their coverage. It added that the projects are important to the development of Maguindanao’s economy.