The city government of Makati announced on Monday it has already surpassed its 2018 revenue goal by three percent, collecting P16.18 billion as of Oct. 31.
The positive performance, according to Mayor Abigail Binay, showed the trust and confidence of the private sector and taxpayers in the reforms she instituted to promote efficiency and transparency at City Hall.
“We are heartened by the positive outcome of our efforts to strengthen the institutional integrity of the city government. Let me assure our residents that my administration will continue to implement and expand existing health, education and social services,” said Binay.
Last year, the city government met 100 percent of its P14.25 billion revenue goal by collecting P14.26 billion in just 11 months, and in December, the city got a total of P16.97 billion collection, 12 percent higher than the actual collection in 2016.
For 2018, city chief treasurer Jesusa Cuneta said Makati was able to collect P16,189,056,365 from January to October, or 103 percent of the 2018 target of P15,676,047,000.
The bulk of collections, she added, came from local sources led by Business Tax with P8.9 billion (100 percent of target), followed by Real Property Tax, almost P5.2 billion (113 percent of target). Other local revenue sources include Fees and Charges with P720 million and Economic Enterprise, P216.8 million.
The mayor also noted that new business registrants as of end-September reached 3,762 based on the records of the Business Permit Office (BPO), which have a combined capital investment of over P24.5 billion.
BPO records also show that the number of permit renewals at the end of the third quarter reached 33,781, which was higher by 1,122 compared with the same period in 2017.
Meanwhile, the city’s revenue collection from other sources for the 10-month period include P213 million from Interest Income and P948 million from Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
Makati is among a few local government units in the country that are not dependent on the IRA.
Under the leadership of Mayor Binay since July 2016, the city government has implemented reforms at City Hall to facilitate business registration and promote transparency, including an aggressive campaign against fixers.
Notable achievements of her administration to date include the first-ever ‘unqualified audit opinion’ of the Commission on Audit (COA) to be earned by the city, which is the highest audit rating given by the said body.
It was also in 2017 that the city posted, for the first time in 12 years, a two-digit increase in revenue collections.
Recently, Makati unseated Quezon City as the country’s richest local government unit, posting total assets worth P196.5 billion, and also became the first LGU to breach the P100-billion mark.