City starts revalidating lots

CEBU, Philippines - Aiming to monitor if commercial establishments in Cebu City are paying the right amount of taxes, a revalidation of lots is currently undertaken by the City Assessor’s Office (CAO).

“This is assisted by a GIS (Geographic Information System). We assigned color codes to distinguish residential from commercial lots,” Land and Building Appraisal division chief Engr. Hilario Alicante, Jr. told reporters.

GIS is a system for storing and manipulating geographical information on computer.

Ongoing revalidation is initially being conducted in barangay Kasambagan which is “almost done,” Alicante added. Once finished, next barangays include Apas, Lahug, Kamputhaw, Guadalupe, and Labangon.

“We decided to start with the north district since commerce is mostly concentrated in the area. Our target is really to cover all the barangays in both north and south,” Alicante said.

A test run was done in 2011 along Salinas Drive which led to the discovery of commercial establishments that have been paying realty taxes as residential units.

Realty taxes for commercial lots are different from residential ones -ten percent of the assessed value is required from commercial lots while only two percent from residential.

Once corrected, this will lead to an increase in city tax collection which will translate to more funds for government.

From an assessed lot’s the tax payment, 70 percent goes to the city government and the remaining 30 percent is the barangay’s share.

CAO assistant department head for operations, Engr. Liezl Gonzaga, explained that revalidation will also speed up the renewal of business permits.

“If the city treasurer’s office finds out that a business establishment is still recorded as a residential, their application for business permit renewal will be returned and only accepted once the correction is done,” Gonzaga explained.

In 2012, CAO has discovered a total of 425 undeclared taxable buildings by cross checking Building Permits and Certificate of Occupancy from the Office of the Building Official (OBO).

This resulted in an increase in the assessed value of P399,301,260.

Still last year, CAO has brought an increase on the assessment in the amount of 21,484,240.

Gonzaga further explained that government buildings like barangay halls and public school buildings are exempted from paying realty taxes.

Private buildings that are functioning as schools or foundation are also exempted.  (FREEMAN)