Alaminos officials told: Exert more efforts to collect real property taxes

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of Alaminos City in Pangasinan should exert more efficient and aggressive efforts to collect unpaid real property taxes which had ballooned to P54.6 million in 2011, the Commission on Audit (COA) said in a recently released report.

The amount, according to state auditors, was more than P1.9 million than the uncollected revenue of P52.7 million in 2010.

COA said the city government headed by Mayor Hernani Braganza failed to collect realty taxes from delinquent taxpayers which had accumulated to P54,680,986.90, including penalties, by the end of 2011.

This resulted in “depriving the (city) of generating income which could have been used to finance development programs/projects for the welfare of its constituents,” COA said.

“We noted that the amount of delinquent real property taxes had increased by P1,922,164.72 or 3.64 percent compared with last year’s balance of P52,758,822.18,” it said.

The audit team called on Alaminos City officials to conduct tax campaigns and seek the assistance of barangay officials to collect all revenue collectibles. 

Local officials, for their part, have told COA that the city treasurer’s office has sent demand letters to delinquent taxpayers and that it would resort to public auction of properties with delinquent taxes.