BTF orders collection of delinquent accounts
MAYOR Belen Fernandez has ordered the city treasurer’s office to intensify its collection of tax dues, particularly from delinquent payers.
The mayor issued the directive after City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara reported that the city is facing a collection shortfall of P40 million for the year.
Alcantara reported most of the delinquent payers are stallholders in the four public markets of Dagupan.
At the Malimgas Market, there are 181 delinquent stallholders on the first floor and 36 others in the second floor with unpaid dues totalling P2.8 million; there are another seven at the Malimgas Public Market II with P700,000; nine at the Magsaysay Market and four at Galvan Market with combined collectibles of P252,000.
Fernandez, apparently dismayed by the failure of the city treasurer’s office to improve on its collections, said she will personally talk to the delinquent stall owners to persuade them to settle their dues, possibly on easy terms, or be ejected from their stalls.
The operation of the Malimgas Public Market, built in 2004 using a loan obtained by the Lim administration worth P600 million, including the interest, from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), is supposed to be a profit center but instead continues to be subsidized by the city government.
The Malimgas Market has also yet to reach full occupancy.
Fernandez noted that the city failed to collect from the many stall owners in the Malimgas Public Market to help pay the bank loan,
REAL PROPERTY TAX
Meanwhile, Fernandez ordered Alcantara and her staff to go out and collect taxes directly from the delinquent real property owners in the barangays instead of just waiting for the delinquent taxpayers to voluntarily settle their accounts.
There are 14,035 real property units (RPUs) in the list of delinquents with unpaid taxes of P83.1 million, to include both the principal and interest.
The unpaid taxes of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) has reached P50.4 million and the Dagupan City Water District, P700,000.
Fernandez said she is postponing a scheduled auction of delinquent properties in the city until after she talks personally with the owners to give them a chance to save their assets.
On the delinquencies of the PNR, Alcantara said she will refer the matter to the regional office of the Bureau of Local Government Finance to seek clarification on the claimed exemption of PNR, a government-run agency, from paying its real property taxes.
While the city assessor’s office maintains that the Local Government Code has lifted the exemption, Alcantara, however, believes that the exemption remains in effect.
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