Poor collection efficiency of real estate tax may cause municipal treasurers in Oriental Negros to lose their monthly financial assistance from the provincial government.

Provincial Treasurer Danilo Mendez said he is now contemplating to recommend to the office of Gov. George Arnaiz that it makes collection efficiency of real estate tax as basis for extending the assistance to the municipal treasurers in the province, noting that last year and in the first three quarters of this year, collection of the tax was quite low.

The target collection this year was P90 million, and the collection of real estate tax since January to October was only P49 million or 66 percent.

Last year of the same period, he said the collection was 72 percent.

In the past years, Mendez said collection of real estate tax in the province was very high, adding that there were even years, that more than 100 percent efficiency was achieved.

About five years ago, Mendez said the provincial government started giving financial support to all 20 municipal treasurers in the province at P500 each and was increased to P1,000 two years after, as an incentive since the provincial government has a share in real estate tax collected by the towns.

Under the law, 40 percent of the real estate tax goes to the municipality, while 25 percent is the share of the barangay, where the taxed property is located. The province is entitled to 35 percent share while municipal treasurers are getting their salaries from the municipalities where they are working.

Mendez said the financial assistance is meant to augment the income of the treasurers, but they also have to be efficient in their task of collecting taxes.

One of the factors that contributed to the decrease of the collection of real estate tax, Mendez added, was the unwillingness of some big real property owners to pay their taxes.

In cases like this, municipal treasurers should insist on collecting the tax, whoever the taxpayers is, he said.

But Mendez also admitted that there are other factors that may have caused the decrease in the collection and these include peace and order situation in some areas where insurgency problem is felt, and some owners just left their properties unproductive.*RA

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