The real property tax collectible of Oriental Negros is increasing, provincial treasurer Danilo Mendez said.

As of December, the total real property tax collectible of the province is pegged at P105 million, prompting the provincial government to devise a scheme to encourage delinquent taxpayers to pay their delinquencies without penalties.

Mendez said that the RPT is a very stable form of taxation but the hardest to collect.

He admitted that one of the reasons for the low RPT collection is the conversion of some areas under the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Those collection efforts were not properly coordinated with the Department of Agrarian Reform office, he said.

Mendez, however, stressed that current delinquencies should be paid first, while 10 percent shall be paid in advance for the old delinquencies and the remaining balance, to be paid in two years without fines.

The provincial treasurer also enjoined local officials to be role models in paying their real property taxes, so their constituents will follow.

In Valencia, municipal treasurer Rolando Obaniana said he is having a hard time collecting taxes from real properties presently occupied by the Philippine National Oil Company, but whose name are still under a number of land owners.

Also contributing in the problem is the undivided properties of heirs as well as some absentee taxpayers, he added.*JG

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