Quezon City is top revenue earner in NCR for 2009

MANILA, Philippines - Once again, Quezon City is living up to its billing as the country’s richest city after it ranked number one among local government units (LGUs) in the National Capital Region (NCR) in terms of revenue collection for 2009.

Based on a report of the Bureau of Local Government Finance, Quezon City posted the biggest revenue collection among the 17 cities and municipalities in NCR.

Quezon City, which registered a total collection of P10,522,540,238, bested other bigger local government units in Metro Manila, including Makati City, which managed to post a colletion of P9,789,062,761.

Manila with P7,373,287,757 was ranked third followed by Pasig (P4,623,623,659, Caloocan (P3,240,656,390), Taguig (P2,773,338,404), Parañaque P2,741,696,544), Pasay (P2,525,478,898), Muntinlupa (P2,382,541,962), Mandaluyong (P1,921,128,268), Valenzuela (P1,900,132,735), Marikina P1,722,667,069), Las Piñas (P1,368,306,007), Malabon (P795,312,750), San Juan (909,855,996), Navotas (P585,191,127), and Pateros (P132,051,755).

Quezon City also ranked number one for economic enterprises which include hospitals, and park collection after it registered an actual collection of P439.1 million and for Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) with P2,574,840,238 both in 2009.

The City Treasurer’s Office head Dr. Victor Endriga said the boost in collection in economic enterprises of the city was due to the P260 million remittance of Quezon City General Hospital last year.

Makati and Manila once again registered second and third in the rank for the two categories.

Meanwhile, QC only ranked second in terms of business tax collection (P4,330 billion) and fees and charges collection (P477.1 million) among Metro Manila’s LGUs and third place in terms of real property collection after registering a collection of P2,698.6 billion).

Makati got the top post in terms of real property tax collection with P4,036.1 billion, and P4,435 billion in business tax collection. In fees and charges collection, Manila ranked number one with P548.9 million.

Endriga said that the slight low of collection of the city in terms of real property tax was due to the present valuation system that the city assessor is using in its tax computation.

He urged City Assessor’s Office to fasttrack its recommendation for the City Council to amend the old valuation system of the city.

“It is high time to make a revision of the 1996 valuation system of QC because other cities and municipalities here in Metro Manila had been amending their land valuation every three years,” Endriga said.

At the same time,ß Endriga said that the high revenue collection of the city was due to the implementation of effective governance and fiscal management policy.