Chaos marks Manila realty tax queues; deadline moved

The city government of Manila has extended to Feb. 20 the deadline for the payment of real property taxes at a 20-percent discount. This is to accommodate the long line of taxpayers complaining about the manual computation of tax assessments.

Luz de Castro from Velasquez, Tondo, said she had to go back three times since Jan. 15 for the release of her property assessment, a process that used to take her only a day to complete.

“They can’t seem to find my record. It’s chaotic and people are getting angry,” De Castro said.

City Assessor Jose de Juan explained that his office had to resort to manual computation since land valuation was recently revised and there was little time to encode the new figures.

Just five months into office, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada approved the new schedule of land valuation in December, along with the P9.8-billion city budget and a new revenue code. Prior to this, the city was using a revenue code that had been unchanged for 20 years.

“We apologize for the delay. We have to process 368,000 tax declarations manually and we have only five appraisers for land, 15 for buildings and seven for machinery,” De Juan said.

A 20-percent discount is granted when real property tax for the year is paid in full within the deadline. Quarterly payment made in the first month, on the other hand, is entitled to a 15-percent discount.