QC exceeds P5.2-B revenue target

The Quezon City government has surpassed its P5.2-billion revenue target for 2003 by over P1 billion to retain the title as the richest local government unit in the country.

Dr. Victor Endriga, city treasurer, said that despite the reduction in business tax this year, the city government has so far posted gross collections of P6,522,999,519.30.

Endriga said the Department of Finance has confirmed that as of December, Quezon City has the highest tax collection among local governments in the country.

"With our record collection, we should again beat Makati and Manila as the richest city in the country," Endriga told The STAR.

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. personally visited yesterday the city treasurer’s office and congratulated the city’s financial managers for job well done.

The mayor also met with Ed Villanueva, who was earlier promoted on the spot for collecting P45 million in a single day.

Villanueva was promoted last month from senior revenue examiner to supervising revenue examiner.

Villanueva is a member of a special task collection task force headed by Eduardo Evangelista that focuses on the collection of tax arrears of big corporations in the city.

The task force has collected over P800 million in a span of eight months.

Belmonte has attributed the successful collection of taxes to the cutting of red tape in the payment of taxes.

"Red tape is one of the factors that contribute to the slow collection of taxes so we got rid of it," the mayor said. — Perseus Echeminada